Program will explore ‘Cultural Resistance and Informed Activism’
NEW YORK (A.W.)—The Armenian Relief Society (ARS) Youth Connect Program (YCP) will be held at New York University (NYU) on March 11-12 and will feature a strong lineup of speakers and dynamic discussions on “Cultural Resistance and Informed Activism.”
Turkish journalist Amberin Zaman
The speakers include New York Times best-selling novelist Chris Bohjalian, Turkish journalist Amberin Zaman, and environmental activist Serda Ozbenian.
The program will feature a discussion with Dr. Khatchig Mouradian, director of the ARS Youth Connect Program. Other speakers will be announced in the coming days.
The program begins on the evening of Fri., March 11, and continues throughout the day on Sat., March 12. Sessions will be held at the NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South, Suite 802 Shorin, in New York City.
New York Times best-selling novelist Chris Bohjalian
The program is available to any Armenian college students between the ages of 18 and 25 years old. Overnight accommodation will be offered for out-of-town students only.
Registration is required. A $25 registration fee includes meals and the evening dinner. To register, visit www.arseastusa.org/donate and choose the Youth Connect Program tab.
Chris Bohjalian is the author of 18 books, most of which were New York Times best-sellers. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and have become movies 3 times. His novel Midwives was a number one New York Times best-seller and a selection of Oprah’s Book Club. His latest novel, The Guest Room, was published in January 2016.
Amberin Zaman is a Turkish journalist who has written extensively about Turkish politics, the Kurds, and Armenian-Turkish relations for the Washington Post, the Daily Telegraph, and the Los Angeles Times. She was the Economist’s Turkey correspondent from 1999 to 2015 and is currently a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. She is also a columnist for the independent Turkish online news portal Diken and for Al-Monitor. Readers can follow her on Twitter @amberinzaman.
Environmental activist Serda Ozbenian
Serda Ozbenian is a researcher with 11 years’ experience working on environmental and social issues. Born in Maryland, Ozbenian has dedicated the last six years to environmental issues in Armenia. Since its founding in 2007, Ozbenian has been the executive director of the Armenian Environmental Network, a project of Earth Island Institute based in Berkeley, Calif. Ozbenian is currently involved with waste management, environmental education, protected area management, wild edible plants, ecotourism, and wild animals in captivity. As part of her graduate work, Ozbenian conducted a survey of attitudes toward and conflicts with wolves and bears in rural villages in Armenia. Ozbenian augmented this research through her recently completed Fulbright Fellowship in Armenia with a research focus on population surveys of wolves and bears. Ozbenian holds an M.S. in environmental science and policy from George Mason University and a B.S. in animal behavior and photography from Towson University.
Khatchig Mouradian is a visiting assistant professor at the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University and the coordinator of the Armenian Genocide Program at the university’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (CGHR). He teaches courses on imperialism, mass violence, and concentration camps in the history and sociology departments at Rutgers. Mouradian is also adjunct professor at the philosophy and urban studies departments at Worcester State University, where he teaches courses on urban space and conflict in the Middle East, genocide, collective memory, and human rights. Mouradian holds a Ph.D. in history from the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University and a graduate certificate in conflict resolution from UMass Boston. He was the editor of the Armenian Weekly from 2007-14.
For more information, contact the ARS of Eastern USA office by calling (617) 926-3801, e-mailing arseastus@gmail.com, or visiting the program’s Facebook event page at www.facebook.com/events/131201310585151.
Source: Armenian Weekly
Link: ARS Youth Connect at NYU to Feature Bohjalian, Zaman, and Ozbenian