PanARMENIAN.Net - At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Promise Armenian Institute has announced the creation of the Armenian Genocide Research Program as one of its component parts, with Turkish historian Taner Akçam appointed as its inaugural director, the Armenian Mirror Spectator reports.
Akçam will be leaving his position as Kaloosdian Mugar Professor in Modern Armenian History and Genocide at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies of Clark University, in Worcester, Mass., and assuming his new post on May 1 of this year.
“When we decided to establish this research program, we did a full search as per UCLA’s requirements, and Taner [Akçam] was selected to be the inaugural director. This will be an entity that certainly will be related to Armenian studies, and there certainly will be overlapping interests with the Armenian Studies Center, but it is going to be a separate program within the Promise Armenian Institute,” said Dr. Ann R. Karagozian, the director of the Promise Armenian Institute (PAI).
Akçam declared, “The reason why they make this an administrative position, but not a faculty position, in my understanding, is that this is the easiest way to establish such a position. A faculty position would have to go through different boards, meetings and departments and it would have taken maybe 3-4 years because it is a state university.”
Akçam is leaving his tenured chair at Clark University permanently. He acknowledged that this move is a little risky, as the position must be renewed every year. He said, “There is a risk, but I thought I should take this risk because it is worth it.”
Karagozian was very positive about the program, declaring: “I am confident that the Armenian Genocide program will continue. If it is successful – and I have every reason to believe it will be entirely successful – we are hopeful that it will eventually become an endowed chair associated with this program.”