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  • PR: A Century of Armenians in America Conference

    PRESS RELEASE
    The Armenian Center at Columbia University
    P.O.Box 4042,
    Grand Central Station,
    New York, NY 10163-4042

    Contact: Anny Bakalian, conference organizer

    Tel: (212) 817-7570
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Website: web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac
    September 7, 2004
    __________________________________________________ ____________________________

    A Century of Armenians in America Conference

    Features Seven New Scholars and Seven Pioneers

    The one-day conference, "A Century of Armenians in America: Voices
    from New Scholarship," is a unique gathering of scholars who have
    contributed to the birth and development of Armenian American
    Studies. A major objective of this conference is to introduce
    to the general public seven new scholars who wrote their doctoral
    dissertations on Armenian Americans in the last decade. Seven pioneers
    in the field will share the platform with them. This conference is
    presented by the Armenian Center at Columbia University and hosted
    by the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC),
    in the Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall at the Graduate Center,
    CUNY, on Saturday October 9, 2004, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

    Conference participants hail from Yerevan, London, California, Ohio,
    New England, and New York City. Historian Robert Mirak, whose book
    Torn Between Two Lands: Armenians in America 1890-World War I (Harvard
    University Press, 1983) forged Armenian American studies, and Arpena
    Mesrobian, Director Emerita at Syracuse University Press and author
    of "Like One Family" - The Armenians of Syracuse, (Gomidas Institute,
    2000), will be the honorary chairpersons of the day. The conference is
    organized by sociologist Anny Bakalian, author of Armenian Americans:
    >>From Being to Feeling Armenian (Transaction Publishers, 1993).
    Bakalian is Associate Director of MEMEAC and serves on the Advisory
    Board of the Armenian Center of her alma mater Columbia University.

    The morning panel is devoted to historians. The first speaker,
    Knarik Avakian, is Staff Researcher at the Institute of History,
    National Academy of Sciences in Yerevan and Editor at the Armenian
    Encyclopaedia. She received her doctorate in 1995 specializing in
    Armenian American history. Avakian is the author of The History of
    the Armenian Community of the United States of America - From the
    Beginning to 1924 (published in Armenian in 2000) and over 50 articles
    and book chapters.

    The next presenter will be George Byron Kooshian, Jr., a native of
    Pasadena, CA. His doctoral dissertation (UCLA 2002) examines the
    struggles of the earliest Armenian settlers and their children's
    generation in Fresno. Since 1975, Kooshian has been a teacher in the
    Los Angeles Unified School District. He is married with three children
    and lives in Altadena, California.

    The third historian on the morning panel will be Ben Alexander, who
    is currently completing his Ph.D. at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His
    dissertation focuses on the changing face of Armenian ethnic identity
    in the United States from 1915 to 1955. Ben teaches U.S. history as an
    adjunct at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. He is also a playwright,
    whose work has been produced at Off-Off-Broadway venues.

    Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, Professor of Modern Armenian and
    Immigration History at California State University, Fresno, will
    critique the morning papers. She has written extensively on Armenian
    immigrants in Canada and the U.S.A. Her most recent book, Like
    Our Mountains: A History of Armenians in Canada, by McGill-Queen's
    University Press, will be released soon.

    The afternoon session features clinical psychologist Diana Vartan
    and family specialist Margaret Manoogian. Vartan emigrated from Iran
    as a teenager. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Southern
    California in 1996. She has worked in a number of community mental
    health settings as a clinician and training supervisor, and has
    taught graduate and undergraduate psychology. Her psychodynamic,
    family systems, and multiethnic focus has helped her address the needs
    of many Armenian families, couples, teenagers, and children. Diana
    Vartan has relocated to New York City in the last year.

    Manoogian is Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at
    Ohio University in Athens. She obtained her Ph.D. from Oregon State
    University specializing in family gerontology. Her current research
    explores family well -being after the 1996 federal welfare reform
    act. Margaret's father encouraged a strong interest and pride in
    Armenian culture, a legacy she is currently sharing with her two
    children.

    The discussant for the psychological panel will be Aghop Der
    Karabetian, Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University
    of LaVerne and Associate Dean for Strategic Planning and Outcomes
    Assessment. He is the author of numerous articles on Armenian
    identity and creator of the much-used Armenian Ethnic Orientation
    Questionnaire. Recently, he translated into English and published his
    and his wife's grandfathers' genocide survival memoirs, "Jail to Jail,"
    and "Vahan's Triumph," respectively.

    In the last panel of the conference, two sociologists, Claudia Der
    Martirosian and Matthew Jendian, will examine generational changes.
    Der Martirosian escaped the Iranian Revolution with her parents at a
    young age. She studied at UCLA, earning a B.A. in Applied Mathematics
    and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1996. She has co-authored chapters
    discussing the Iranian and Armenian experiences in Irangeles and
    Ethnic Los Angeles. She currently works as a Statistical Consultant
    with UCLA Public Health Dentistry and Southern California University
    of Health Sciences (SCUHS).

    Matthew Ari Jendian is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director
    of the American Humanics Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management
    and Leadership at California State University, Fresno. He received his
    Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2001. Matthew is
    an active member of the Armenian Church and an ordained deacon. He
    is the proud father of Joshua and Nicholas, two of Fresno's native
    fourth-generation Armenian Americans.

    The discussant of the last panel will be Susan Pattie who will
    compare and contrast the Armenian experience in the U.S. with the
    diaspora. Pattie is the author of Faith in History - Armenians
    Rebuilding Community (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997). She is
    a Senior Research Fellow at University College London. Recently,
    she was instrumental in the founding of the Armenian Institute in
    London, which is dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a
    living experience.

    Concluding remarks will be offered by Khachig Tölölyan, Chair of the
    English Department at Wesleyan University. Tölölyan is the founder
    and editor of Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies. This
    award-winning publication is in its 12th year of continuous publication
    by the Zoryan Institute and Toronto University Press.

    Thanks to the generosity of the benefactors who established the
    outreach efforts of the Armenian Center at Columbia, this conference
    aims to jumpstart new research projects on Armenian immigrants and
    their descendants in the United States not only by energizing the
    scholars who are presenting papers on October 9, 2004, but also
    inspiring graduate students to pursue studies in this area. Most
    of the new scholars had to read Mirak's or Pattie's books for their
    dissertations, some borrowed Der Karabetian's Armenian identity scale
    for their research, and probably they all aspired to emulate Tölölyan's
    academic achievements. However, few have had the opportunity to meet
    the pioneers in person. It is hoped that mentoring partnerships,
    scholarly networks and even friendships will result from this historic
    gathering, eventually yielding a burst of new research and publications
    on Armenian immigrant and their descendants in America. The day will
    be structured in a way that will give the audience an opportunity to
    engage conference participants on topics of their own interest.

    Do not miss this unique opportunity to learn about Armenian
    American history and the issues affecting this community today. The
    Graduate Center, CUNY is located at 365 Fifth Avenue, between
    34th and 35th Streets. For more information contact Anny Bakalian,
    [email protected] or 212-817-7570. The conference program and
    other information can be found on www.columbiaarmeniancenter.org
    or web.gc.cuny.edu/memeac.
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