PRESS RELEASE
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Contact: Prof. Gerard Libaridian
Email: [email protected]
FIFTH MEETING OF THE WORKSHOP FOR ARMENIAN/TURKISH SCHOLARSHIP TO
CONVENE AT NYU
Public Session Scheduled for Sunday, May 14
The next meeting of the Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship
(WATS) will convene at New York University, May 14-16. This will be the
fifth meeting of this important undertaking. The three day gathering
will start with a session open to the public, from 7:00-9:00 PM in the
Hemmerdinger Hall, Silver Center, 100 Washington Square East, 1st
Floor. Organized by Professors Fatma Müge Göçek (Sociology,
University of Michigan), Gerard Libaridian (History, Michigan), and
Ronald Grigor Suny (History, Michigan), previous meetings of WATS were
held at the University of Chicago (2000), University of Michigan
(2002), the University of Minnesota (2004) and in Salzburg, Austria
last year. The fifth meeting is being hosted by New York University and
the organizers are joined by Prof. Paul Boghossian ( Philosophy, NYU).
The theme of the workshop this year is `The Boundaries of Genocide:
Intentions, Histories, Peoples.’
`Dialogue is an ideal that often ends up with one side talking and the
other appearing to listen,’ commented Prof. Ronald Suny. `In
discussions about the Armenian Genocide of 1915, neither side –
Armenian or Turkish – seemed to understand, or even hear, what the
other was saying. How could the deportation and massacre of hundreds
of thousands of people be metastasized into a civil war that never
occurred? How could one blame the victims for their own deaths? This
workshop has been one of the most exciting and productive scholarly
initiatives in the last five years that has brought Turkish, Armenian,
and other historians and social scientists together to present research
and talk about the fate of the Armenians and other minorities in the
last years of the Ottoman Empire.’
The evening session on May 14 will serve to acquaint the general
public with the work of this initiative. In addition to introductory
comments by Prof. Boghossian and officials of the host institution,
Professors Gocek, Suny and Libaridian will present reports on various
aspects of WATS and answer questions. The public is invited.