Zanazan Sounds | ԶԱՆԱԶԱՆ

This podcast explores the people behind the Armenian Diaspora Survey. Hosted by this year’s UK qualitative researcher and AI Academic Advisor, Dr. Susan Pattie speaks with a number of team members based globally, including Director Dr. Hratch Tchilingirian (London), researcher and interviewer, Dr. Lalai Manjikian (Montreal), team leader Dr. Pamela Young (Boston) and interviewer Lucila Tossounian (Buenos Aires). We learn how and why ADS exists, who benefits from it, and where to find out more!

If you are an Armenian living in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Paris or Rostov-on-Don, you can participate in the current survey here, closing at the end of June 2021: https://www.armeniandiasporasurvey.com/

The Armenian Diaspora Survey (ADS) was born out of an interest to learn more about what people are thinking about and doing in contemporary Armenian communities across the globe. Led by a team of academics, researchers and experts, the ADS aims to provide a snapshot of the contemporary Diaspora. The project fills a critical gap in the knowledge of the Diaspora and provides evidence-based understanding of the multilayered and diverse aspects of diasporic life. An Advisory Committee of experienced scholars and researchers assists the ADS Director and Team in creating the tools for the research and the analysis of the results. The project is funded by the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, and administered by the Armenian Institute, London.

he Armenian Institute is a London based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications to podcast series.

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish 2-3 episodes a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Academic and activist Hrag Papazian speaks about his research which took place in the Republic of Turkey, and consisted of studying Armenian-identifying Muslims and Alevis. Together with AI’s Nik Matheou, the pair discuss the associated parameters within Armenianness, the diversity found through Hrag’s research and the interrelated activism between ethno-religious minorities within Turkey today.

Hrag Papazian recently received his DPhil in Anthropology from the University of Oxford, and is currently based at the American University of Armenia in Yerevan. His research examines the various Armenian factions living in contemporary Turkey: the traditional Christian Armenian community, the Muslim and Alevi Armenians who have publicly emerged only during the recent decades, and the migrants from neighbouring Armenia who started to arrive since the early 1990s. He studies the differing meanings, interpretations, productions and experiences of Armenianness among all three factions, revealing the diversity of Turkey’s Armenian population. He also analyses these three groups’ relations with the Turkish state and majority, their mutual conflictual relationships and intra-ethnic boundary making processes.

The Armenian Institute is a London based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications to podcast series.

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish 2-3 episodes a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Ahead of our celebration on May 2nd of Armenian Poetry Project’s 15th anniversary with the International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA), our director Tatevik Ayvazyan chats with founder and poet, Lola Koundakjian about the origins of the Dead Poet's Society; her background, inspirations and works; the importance of translating Armenian poetry into other languages; trying to find Orpheus in the New York City subway and Rainer Maria Rilke's midlife crisis. Lola shares with us a few of her beautiful poems in both Armenian and English, in anticipation of our online event this Sunday May 2nd: https://bit.ly/3dRqZem 

You can find Lola’s Armenian Poetry Project here: https://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com/

You can find the International Armenian Literary Alliance here: https://armenianliterary.org

Poet and artist Lola Koundakjian was born in Beirut and is now based in New York City, and writes in her native Armenian as well as English. Lola is an energetic activist for poetry, gathering people together for workshops and events, spreading her love of the art form. She is widely published with poems appearing in journals and websites as well as her own publications. For 25 years she has organized readings dedicated to the “Dead Armenian Poets’ Society” and has worked on editing written and audio texts for the multilingual “Armenian Poetry Project” since 2006.  Lola has read her poetry at festivals and events around the United States, South American, Europe, and Armenia.

The Armenian Institute is a London based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications to podcast series.

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish 2-3 episodes a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Armenians have been fighting for over a century to gain recognition of the genocide: but what comes next? We speak with Sophia Armen, who is the third generation of her family to be involved in the Armenian resistance, about the necessity of cross-cultural mobilisation & conversation, and the modern, haunting presence of genocide denial.

Sophia Armen is an Armenian-American feminist community organizer, scholar and writer born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the Co-Director of the Armenian-American Action Network and helps lead The Feminist Front, that works at the intersction of racial and gender justice. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Armenian Weekly, Mondoweiss, and The Electronic Intifada. She can be found on Twitter at @sophiaarmen and on Instagram at @sophiaarmen.

The Armenian Institute is a London based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications to podcast series..

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish twice a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Our music is a unique composition using Shadow - Buddha’s Lounge and Cruising - Vendredi.

Our director, Tatevik Ayvazyan sits in conversation with Oksana Mirzoyan, screenwriter, producer and director. The two friends revisit Oksana’s childhood: fleeing her hometown, Baku, at the age of 4, to witnessing Armenia’s earthquake, Russia’s breadlines and discrimination from all sides. Arts, music and culture never ceased to amaze Oksana from a young age, and now after settling in Detroit, she encapsulates her lived experiences subtly, and so beautifully, in her range of incredibly touching films.

You can watch some of Oksana’s films through our website: https://bit.ly/3m5fC4T

The Armenian Institute is a London-based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications to podcast series.

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish 2-3 episodes a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Our music is Shadow by Buddha’s Lounge.

This week our Programme Manager, Dr. Nik Matheou, sat down in conversation with Dr. Özlem Belçim Galip, a Kurdish academic with experience studying Armenian and Kurdish identities, social movements and representations. Led into the field through her Armenian tattoo, Özlem has published multiple books and continues to observe and document the range of relationships between politics and identity. Comparing Kurdish and Armenian relationships in the present day has opened space for greater understanding of how they came to be this way, with the difficulties of the past often previously used as divisive techniques but now increasingly overcome in both communities.

The Armenian Institute is a London based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications (link to website) to podcast series.

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish twice a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Our music is a unique composition of Paraglider by Danya Vodovoz and Shadow by Buddha’s Lounge.

To launch our Discover series, where we learn from leading figures in our global community, we spoke with Maro Matosian, founder of the Women's Support Centre in Yerevan, about the necessity of this work in Armenian society. Amidst rehabilitating victims of domestic violence, when the war broke out in Artsakh, NGOs in Armenia were forced to transform into relief organisations. Collaborating with Kooyrigs and working closely with local hospitals, Maro and WSC continually distributed medical supplies to the frontlines funded by donations from Armenia, the diaspora and beyond. Maro also sheds light on the country’s need for not just financial support, but professional, and the responsibility which lies within the diaspora.

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The Armenian Institute is a London based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications to podcast series..

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish twice a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Our music is a unique composition using Shadow - Buddha’s Lounge and Cruising - Vendredi.

In our debut episode of Treasures From The Library, our very own librarian Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian details the history, contents and current relevance of Hrachia Acharian’s etymological dictionary, hand-written in the early twentieth century after decades of studying the roots of Armenian words and compiling an ever-growing list. Acharian is considered the father of Armenian linguistics and his work is continued today by etymologists in Armenia and abroad.

The Armenian Institute is a London-based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our media outputs, from online publications to podcast series.

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning “variety” in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to explore three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out, or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us anytime at [email protected]

Our music is a unique composition of Paraglider by Danya Vodovoz and Shadow by Buddha’s Lounge.

In our very first episode of the series, Dr. Susan Pattie talks to Tatevik Ayvazyan about their shared role of 2020: Director of AI. For nearly twenty years, Susan has been working (unofficially and officially) as Director of the Armenian Institute since its founding in 2001. Fast-forward to 2020, the year that changed us all, and the role changed hands half-way through the year when Tatevik took over as AI’s Director.

Looking back on the aims and hopes for the institution when it was founded, Susan observes how far AI has come, and reveals what she is most excited about for the future. Looking forward, Tatevik reflects on the challenges of the past year to move into the future with big strides and a new and exciting team and program for AI bringing together poetry, film, cooking and academic worlds - and more!

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The Armenian Institute is a London based charity dedicated to making Armenian culture and history a lived experience through innovative programmes, educational resources, workshops, lectures, exhibits and performances. This year we present Zanazan: an umbrella title covering our upcoming media output, from online publications to podcast series.

Zanazan Sounds is a project that aims to explore shared histories, learn about contemporary Armenian worlds and create new ones. Zanazan (meaning "diverse" in Armenian) is also the title of our latest online publication where photo essays, articles and poetry from around the world can be found.

We aim to publish several times a month, taking a different angle each week as we explore our three podcasting strands: Discover, Treasures From The Library and Uncover. You can follow our social media accounts for updates in between episodes.

To get involved with AI you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you’d like to reach out or to discuss anything you’ve heard in this series, feel free to email us at [email protected]

Our music is Shadow by Buddha's Lounge.