Innovate Armenia Comes to USC on May 18

For Immediate Release


May 7, 2019


USC INSTITUTE OF ARMENIAN STUDIES
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact: Syuzanna Petrosyan, Associate Director
[email protected] | 213.821.3943


Innovate Armenia Comes to USC on May 18

Innovate Armenia -- the festival of ideas, music and action -- will once again 
burst on to the USC Campus on Saturday, May 18, from 10 am to 6 pm. Want to 
know what to expect?

Imagine you walk into USC at 10:00 am on Saturday, May 18. Parking is easy. You 
grab a (free) cup of coffee from Serj Tankian's Kavat Coffee or Henry's House 
of Coffee from the DIALECTS OF COFFEE station. Maybe you stop and record a 
conversation with journalist Liana Aghajanian about your memories of coffee, 
family, immigration and different traditions of making coffee. Then you head 
inside to Bovard Auditorium and listen to six different scholars talk about 
connecting to identity and memory in old Armenian towns and routes throughout 
Turkey. 

You get ready to listen to a conversation with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan 
live via Skype about HOW TO BUILD A COUNTRY.

You decide it's time for some jingyalov hats, kabob tacos or some other 
innovative mix of familiar food from Z's. You grab a bite while you listen to 
Garabala (from Beirut), the Nur Qanon Ensemble (from Yerevan), or Richard 
Hagopian (from Fresno) on the day-long music stage. 

You walk back into Bovard just in time for SOUND STORIES -- a surprise 
collaboration between the Institute and Element Band -- presenting the stories 
we don't know about the music we love. 

Now you're ready for an afternoon of talks on HOW TO BUILD A COUNTRY, 
POST-REVOLUTION -- by ministers and policy makers from the Government of 
Armenia. 

It’s been a really stimulating day and you could use a glass of beer, so you 
head outside and sample (free) craft Armenian beer while you listen to the beer 
guru himself, Charlie Papazian, talk about the 4,000 traditions of Armenian 
craft beer. Then you walk around the various booths where organizations from 
Armenia can work with you to discuss how you can connect. You make sure to stop 
by the Institute’s booth to say hello to the staff and student workers, and to 
learn about what it is that the Institute does.

Innovate Armenia is at the intersection of innovation and engagement. Come play 
your part.

About the Institute

Established in 2005, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies supports 
multidisciplinary scholarship to re-define, explore and study the complex 
issues that make up the contemporary Armenian experience—from post-genocide to 
the developing Republic of Armenia to the evolving diaspora. The institute 
encourages research, publications and public service, and promotes links among 
the global academic and Armenian communities.

For inquiries, write to [email protected] or call 213.821.3943.