[Sci-tech-public] MIT conference on America's response to Armenian Genocide, SATURDAY 3-13-2010

[Margo Collett]

MIT hosts conference on America's response to Armenian Genocide

Cambridge, Mass. - On March 13, 2010, a one-day conference entitled "America's
Response to the Armenian Genocide: From Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama," will
take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Building 10
Room 250 from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

The conference is co-organized by Profs. Bedross Der Matossian (MIT) and
Christopher Capozzola (MIT) and sponsored by the Faculty of History, the Center
for International Studies (CIS), the Office of the Religious Affairs, and the
Program on Human Rights & Justice (PHRJ).

The goal of the conference is to discuss and examine America's evolving policy
toward the Armenian Genocide from the earliest years of World War I through the
present day.

Although the Armenian Genocide is increasingly recognized as one of the
foundational events of the twentieth century's painful history of political and
ethnic violence, scholars who have examined its impact on United States foreign
policy have concentrated almost exclusively on the presidency of Woodrow
Wilson. But the legacy of the Armenian Genocide shaped U.S. policy through the
twentieth century-as Americans confronted the meaning of "genocide" itself in
the wake of World War II; as they confronted Armenia's pivotal place in the
tense Cold War conflict; as Armenian Diaspora voices pressed Congress for
recognition; and as geopolitics shifted again with the unification of Europe
and U.S. intervention in the Middle East.

The one-day conference will bring together specialists in U.S. foreign
relations, along with historians of ethnic conflict, genocide, and humanitarian
intervention more generally. By bringing together experts on Armenia with those
whose interests range somewhat further afield, the conference seeks to
incorporate Armenian histories more fully into historical and social scientific
disciplines and to foster dialogue between area studies specialists and U.S.
historians.

Panels will discuss three major historical phases that shaped U.S. policy
towards the Armenian Genocide: World War I, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War
era. The latter two periods remain particularly understudied periods.

Speakers at the conference include Prof. Jens Meierhenrich (Harvard University),
Prof. Richard Hovannisian (UCLA), prof. David Engerman (Brandeis University),
Prof. Christopher Capozzola (MIT), Prof. Simon Payaslian (BU),  Prof. David
Ekbladh (Tufts University), Prof. Dennis Papazian (University of
Michigan-Dearborn),  Michael Bobelian (lawyer, author, and journalist), Gregory
Aftandilian (independent scholar), Dr. Rouben Adalian (ANI), Marc Mamigonian
(NAASR), Dr. Suzanne Moranian (AIWA), and  Prof. Bedross Der Matossian (MIT). A
keynote speech will be delivered by Hovannisian, who holds the Armenian
Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA.