Unpacking Armenian Studies

Karabakh or Artsakh? Where do all the different names for this region come from? In this episode of Language Therapy, Dr. K talks to historian George Bournoutian, an expert on the history of Armenia and the Caucasus, to discuss the historical, political, and linguistic legacies of this region's various place names. For more, visit armenian.usc.edu.

Armenians in Turkey — Dr. Ari Şekeryan, raised in Istanbul, is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, studying the minority-majority relations in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. He talks to Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian about the role of newspapers and churches in the vision for a united Armenia during that period.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu

Additional Resources:

Listen to Ari's talk at Innovate Armenia 2017 about growing up and learning to be Armenian in Turkey here: https://bit.ly/2Fwg4IR.

Who is a 1.5 generation immigrant? What is the connection between generation and language? What are the challenges of transmitting Armenian as a 1.5 generation parent? And what's with all the guilt and shame? Dr. K is joined by attorney and co-founder of ToTalk Armenian, Armine Bazikyan, as they discuss Armine's family's struggles with language transmission and ToTalk as a possible solution.

For more, visit armenian.usc.edu.

Armenians Beyond Diaspora: How They Made Lebanon Their Own — A conversation with Dr. Tsolin Nalbantian about her work understanding Lebanese politics and how "Armenian" space is fashioned in a Lebanon where citizens are demanding the end to a decades-old sectarian government system that has sustained inefficiency, dysfunction and a non-representative, non-merit based power structure.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Memories of grandparents and all the ways Armenians refer to their grandparents in this episode of Inch by Inch.

Inch by Inch is an exploration of the details of intimate daily life and their connections to the larger questions, through the prism of Armenian cultural and linguistic memories.

For more, visit armenian.usc.edu.

Writing Turkish with Armenian letters — Dr. Murat Cankara teaches Turkish language and literature at the Social Sciences University of Ankara. He talks to Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian about how and why 2,000 Armeno-Turkish novels and other works were published over centuries.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Additional Resources:

Listen to Cankara's talk at Innovate Armenia 2016: https://apple.co/3hDR5kC.

To read some of Cankara's articles, visit: https://asbu.academia.edu/MuratCankara.

What is the connection between artificial intelligence, psychology, and language? Who/what is the world's first emotionally intelligent hospital robot and what's the connection to Armenia? Dr. K talks to Karen Khachikyan, CEO and co-founder of Expper Technologies, the company behind Robin the Robot, as they discuss Robin's emotional and linguistic capacities in helping children overcome their stress, isolation, and anxiety in a hospital setting. Dr. Shant Shekherdimian and Dr. Mineh Badmagharian also join the conversation. For more, visit armenian.usc.edu.

'They needed a real Lebanon' — Dr. Nubar Hovsepian is associate professor of political science at Chapman University. He speaks to Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian about the Palestinian resistance movement, the role of education in forming national identity, and state building in Lebanon.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Additional Resources:

Hovsepian, Nubar. Palestinian State Formation: Education and the Construction of National Identity. Cambridge Scholars, 2008.

Listen to a conversation between Nubar Hovsepian, Arturo Sarukhan,and Manuel Pastor hosted by the Institute about human rights and refugees: https://bit.ly/2E33y24.

What kinds of language policies do multilingual families enact when the language or languages in the home are not the same as the dominant language outside the home? What if each parent speaks a different language? What types of reactions and attitudes do families have to deal with when they set specific family strategies for language transmission? Dr. K is joined by Los Angeles Times journalist, Esmeralda Bermudez, in a deep conversation about language, identity, immigration, heritage, and the parenting choices she and her Armenian husband make in their multilingual family.

Read Bermudez's piece on raising a multilingual daughter here: https://lat.ms/31lXw4M.

For more, visit armenian.usc.edu.

Conflict resolution and Nagorno-Karabakh — Dr. Philip Gamaghelyan is an assistant professor of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, and cofounder of the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation and Caucasus Edition, an online journal. He talks to Institute Director Salpi Ghazarian about the politics of memory, intervention, and the design of dialogue between Armenians, Turks and Azeris.

For more, visit Armenian.usc.edu.

Additional Resources:

• The Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation is an independent, non-political organization that sustains networks of individuals around the world committed to working across conflict divides. https://www.imaginedialogue.com
• Caucasus Edition is independent online publication that serves as a forum for scholars, practitioners, journalists, policy analysts and researchers. https://caucasusedition.net
• Conciliation Resources is a produced film co-produced by Armenian and Azerbaijani journalists and NGO leaders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yuVOK96RE