9 octobre 2024 :
WRITING AGAINST STALIN'S WESTERN
CITY: MKRTICH ARMEN'S YEREVAN (1931)
AND THE SPECTER OF THE "NEW EAST"
(NOR AREVELK')
David Leupold, Ph.D.
Research fellow at the Leibniz
Zentrum Moderner Orient Berlin
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2024 | 6 PM PT
HYBRID: BUNCHE HALL, ROOM 10383 & ZOOM
LEARN MORE & RSVP AT bit.ly/PAI10-09-24
Whether Jim Torosyan's late Soviet construction of the
Cascade or the prestigious megaproject Northern Avenue
in the post-Soviet period, to this day the spatial
arrangement of the Soviet-Armenian architect Aleksandr
Tamanyan continues to form the most important
parameter for the urban development of Armenia's capital
Yerevan. Tamanyan's architectural work, which can be
understood as a local variation of Stalin-era Neoclassicism
(Neo-Armenianizm), is understood by many residents not
only as an unquestionable legacy but as proof of
Armenia’s place in an alleged grand narrative of Western
modernity.
However, this retrospective perspective of the city’s
Stalin-era imperial legacy obscures the view on the deep
fault lines that ran between him and his opponents,
revealing the urban trajectory of the nascent capital as a
site of embattled urbanity. One of his opponents was the
surrealist writer Mkrtich Armen, who advanced a powerful
critique of Tamanyan’s Western-modelled city in his
writings. Banned upon publication by censors, his first
novel "Yerevan. A Saga" (1931) cherishes a retrotopian
vision for the future city, which embarks from the
historical legacy of pre-Tsarist, Persianate-Islamic Yerevan
towards the communopolitan horizon of a “New East”
(Nor Arevelk’).
In his talk, Dr. Leupold will argue that these alternative
imaginaries of the urban were informed, in an unexpected
dialectical twist, both by retrotopian yearning for a
(pre-)colonial past that was coming undone before their
eyes and anticipation for a utopian future at a point of
post-revolutionary history largely understood by its
contemporaries as the dawn of socialist worldmaking.
Based on this, he will conclude by discussing how the
specter of a "New Eastern" city, built in unison with
"architects of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan", speaks to a precarious and war-ridden
present in which Armenians and Azerbaijanis are pitched ….
Vendredi 18 octobre 2024 :
This talk explores the role of Rev. Hovhannes
Eskijian and his associates in the underground
network of humanitarians, missionaries, and
diplomats who resisted the destruction of the
Armenian people during World War I. Piecing
together hundreds of accounts, official
documents, and missionary records—including
Eskijian’s and his associates’ family archives—
Mouradian presents a social history of genocide
and resistance in Ottoman Syria. He argues that
despite the violent and systematic mechanisms
of control and destruction in the cities,
concentration camps, and massacre sites in this
region, the genocide of the Armenians did not
progress unhindered—unarmed resistance
proved an important factor in saving lives and
laying the groundwork for postwar rebuilding.
This endowed lectureship is named in honor of
the Kerr family, whose progenitors include
Professor Stanley and Elsa Reckman Kerr, who
helped to rescue and provide exemplary
humanitarian care for survivors of the Armenian
Genocide of 1915-23. The annual Kerr Family
Lectureship is designed to amplify the stories of
heroes and heroines who dedicated themselves
to saving and supporting victims and survivors of
violence and mass atrocities in times of crisis.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024 | 7 PM PT
HYBRID: MONG LEARNING CENTER & ZOOM
bit.ly/kerrfamilylecture2024
KHATCHIGMOURADIAN,PH.D.
LECTURER,COLUMBIAUNIVERSITY;
ARMENIANANDGEORGIANAREA
SPECIALIST, THE LIBRARYOFCONGRESS
THE UCLA PROMISE ARMENIAN INSTITUTE PRESENTS ITS SECOND ANNUAL KERR FAMILY LECTURE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
ANTRANIKDAKESSIAN,PH.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR,HAIGAZIAN
UNIVERSITY; EDITOR-IN-CHIEF,
HAIGAZIANARMENOLOGICAL
