FRESNO, Calif.— Dr. Khatchig Mouradian (Clark University), the newly appointed 13th Henry K. Khanzadian Kazan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies at California State University, Fresno, will give three public lectures on the general theme of “Genocide and Resilience” in the Fall 2016 semester.
Dr. Khatchig Mouradian
The first lecture in the series, “Genocide and Humanitarian Resistance in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1917” will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 20, in the University Business Center, Alice Peters Auditorium, Room 191, on the Fresno State campus. An hors d’oeuvres reception will take place from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the University Business Center Gallery, prior to the lecture.
The assault on, and the humanitarian resistance waged by Armenian deportees in Ottoman Syria during World War I provide insight into key aspects of the Armenian Genocide. In this illustrated lecture, Mouradian presents a multifaceted account of developments in Aleppo and across the network of concentration camps in Ras ul-Ain and along the banks of the Euphrates River from Meskeneh to Der Zor during the war. Drawing upon previously untapped primary sources as well as fresh insights from others, he explores the interactions between the local, regional, and central authorities on the one hand, and the humanitarian resistance waged by a network of Armenians aided by locals and western missionaries on the other.
Positioning the war effort at the core of Ottoman policies towards deportees in Ottoman Syria, Mouradian discusses how, and why, a series of fateful decisions affecting hundreds of thousands of Armenian deportees, rolled out beginning in fall 1915, culminated in a second wave of massacres in the Syrian desert in summer 1916, and how thousands of Armenians survived the carnage through the efforts of the humanitarian resistance network.
The second lecture in the series, on Oct. 20, will be on the topic of “‘Don’t Fall off the Earth’: The Armenian Communities in China from the 1880s to 1950s.”
The third lecture in the series on Nov. 30, will be on “The Tale of Two Midwives: The Notebooks of Siphora and Nuritza Shnorhokian of Aintab, 1890-1930.”
Khatchig Mouradian, the former editor of the Armenian Weekly, holds a PhD 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 is a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (CGHR) at Rutgers University, where he also serves as the coordinator of the Armenian Genocide Program.
In 2015-2016, Dr. Mouradian was a visiting assistant professor at the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University. Since 2014, Mouradian has taught courses on imperialism, mass violence, human rights, concentration camps, urban space and conflict in the Middle East, and collective memory in the History and Sociology departments at Rutgers and at Worcester State University.
Dr. Mouradian is the author of several articles and book chapters, including, most recently, “The Meskeneh Concentration Camp, 1915-1917: A case study of power, collaboration, and humanitarian resistance during the Armenian Genocide,” Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies, Vol. 24 (2015); and “Genocide and Humanitarian Resistance in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1916,” Études arméniennes contemporaines, Vol. 7 (2016).
The lectures and reception are free and open to the public. Free parking is available, using parking code 273707 (use the code in kiosks in the parking area to receive the permit) at Fresno State Lots P5 and P6, near the University Business Center, Fresno State.
For more information about the lecture please contact the Armenian Studies Program at 278-2669, or visit our website at www.fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.
Source: Armenian Weekly
Link: Mouradian Appointed Visiting Professor in Armenian Studies at Fresno State