Targeted News Service
June 15, 2018 Friday 7:10 AM EST


22nd Vardanants Day Armenian Lecture June 26

WASHINGTON

The Library of Congress issued the following news:

International scholars will take part in a conference, part of the
22nd Vardanants Day Armenian lecture series, titled "New Topics in
Armenian History and Culture." The conference, which will explore the
linguistic, artistic, social and musical history of Armenia, will take
place on Tuesday, June 26, beginning at 8:30 a.m. in room LJ119 of the
Library's Thomas Jefferson Building, located at 10 First Street S.E.,
Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public. No tickets
are required. The conference is being presented to coincide with the
2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival which will highlight Armenia and
Catalonia.

The scholars' presentationswill go beyond discussion of Armenia as a
nation to explore the ancient culture of the Armenian people, many of
whom live outside the Republic in a diaspora around the world
including the United States. The scholars participating in this
program, whose research spanned the globe in archives and libraries
including the Library of Congress, have contributed to the story of
those who claim Armenian descent.

The speakers and the titles of their presentations for the program are:

* Luc Vartan Baronian, Universite du Quebec a Chicoutimi, Canada, "A
More Distant Past Than We Usually Think: The Antiquity of the Armenian
Dialect Split."

* Vazken Khatchig Davidian, Birkbeck College, University of London,
"Image of the Migrant Worker: Visualising the Bantoukhdfrom Ottoman
Armenia in Late Nineteenth Century Constantinople."

* Helen C. Evans, Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters,
"Cilicia on Mongol Trade Routes."

* Nerses V. Hayrapetyan, U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, "Samizdat and the
Emergence of the Contemporary Armenian Press."

* Robert Krikorian, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, U.S.
Department of State, "The Re-Appropriation of the Past: History and
Politics in Soviet Armenia, 1988-1991."

* Amy Landau, Walters Art Museum, "A Concert of Luxurywares and
Estates: The Will of the 17th-Century Armenian, Merchant Poghos
Velijanian."

* Sylvie L. Merian, The Morgan Library & Museum, "The Eclectic
Nature of Late Armenian Manuscripts from Constantinople."

* Khatchig Mouradian, Columbia University, "Unarmed and Dangerous:
Non-violent Resistance from the Ottoman Empire to the Third Reich."

* Haig Utidjian, Charles University in Prague, "'Sublime and
celestial': Pietro Bianchini and an Ode for the Patriarch."

* Theo Maarten van Lint, Oxford University, "Poetry, Patria and
Pedigree: Eghishe Charents' Monument and the Muse's Discontents."

* Murat C. Yildiz, Skidmore College, "Biceps and Balls: Physical
Culture in late Ottoman Bolis."

* Tigran Zargaryan, The National Library of Armenia, "The Pan-Armenian
Digital Library in Action: Connecting the Diasporas, Bridging
Knowledge."

The Vardanants Day lecture series was created to explore and present
all aspects of Armenian culture and history. It is named after the
Armenian holiday that commemorates the battle of Avarayr (451 A.D.),
which was waged by the Armenian General Vardan Mamikonian and his
compatriots against invading Persian troops who were attempting to
reimpose Zoroastrianism on the Christian state. Though a religious
holiday, it also celebrates the Armenians' secular triumph over forces
of assimilation.

For a list of the twenty-one previous Vardanants Day lectures and
links to webcasts of those since the 9th in 2001, visit this Library
website. The Library's African and Middle Eastern Division is the
center for the study of 78 countries and regions from Southern Africa
to the Maghreb and from the Middle East and the Caucasus to Central
Asia. For more information, visit loc.gov/rr/amed/.