Armenian Cultural Heritage: Past, Present and Future

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.   Agenda 08:00AM - 09:00AM  Coffee and Registration 09:00AM - 09:30AM Welcome & Opening Remarks   Ann Karagozian, Director, UCLA Promise Armenian Institute    Amy Landau, Director of Education and Interpretation, UCLA Fowler Museum  09:30AM - 10:15AM  Keynote Address   Ann Karagozian, Director, UCLA Promise Armenian Institute — Introduction    Lori Khatchadourian, Associate Professor, Cornell University; co-founder and co-director, Caucasus Heritage Watch Cornell University — Heritage Forensics: Satellites and Specters in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict 10:15AM - 11:15AM Session 1: Cultural Heritage Destruction and Documentation in the South Caucasus   Kristine Martirosyan Olshansky, Director of the Research Program in Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology — Moderator   Hamlet Petrosyan, Head of Department of Cultural Studies, Yerevan State University; Head of Artsakh Cultural Heritage Research Group, Head of Dvin Archaeological Expedition; Institute of Archaeology & Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of Armenia — Issues of Cultural Heritage Protection in the Context of Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict: The Experience of www.monumentwatch.org Academic Platform   Nzhdeh Yeranyan, Deputy Scientific Director, History Museum of Armenia; Lecturer, Department of Cultural Studies, Yerevan State University — Shattered Heritage: Museums, Memories, and the Cultural Loss in Artsakh 11:15AM - 12:00PM Keynote Address   Hannah Garry, Executive Director of The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law — Introduction    Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Representative on International Legal Matters of Republic of Armenia 12:00PM - 12:25PM Musical Offering in collaboration with the UCLA Armenian Music Program   Melissa Bilal, Promise Chair in Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture; Director of Armenian Music Program; Assistant Professor, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music — Introduction   Antranig Kzirian, UCLA Armenian Music Program Mentor for the Oud 12:25PM - 01:30PM Lunch  01:30PM - 02:50PM Session 2: Cultural Heritage Destruction and Documentation in Historic Western Armenia/Present day Turkey   Anna Aleksanyan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Armenian Genocide Research Program at UCLA PAI — Moderator   Delal Dink, Vice President, Hrant Dink Foundation — Unraveling the “True Treasure”: Exploring Cultural Heritage Through Stories   Heghnar Watenpaugh, Professor of Art History, UC Davis — Ani, A UNESCO World Heritage Site between Armenian Memory and Turkish Patrimony   Ara Sarafian, Executive Director, Gomidas Institute (London) — Rational Assessment, Forthright Engagement: Projecting a Diasporan Armenian Presence in Turkey Today 02:50PM - 04:30PM Session 3: Practical Solutions for Cultural Heritage Protection/Preservation     Peter Cowe, Narekatsi Professor of Armenian Studies, UCLA — Moderator   Simon Maghakyan, Research Associate/Gulbenkian Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford — From Urfa to Djulfa: Victim Agency in Extrastatal Dignity Restoration   Taner Akcam, Director of the Armenian Genocide Research Program at Promise Armenian Institute, UCLA — The Armenian Genocide Reparation Movement and the Looted Cultural Objects   Ruzanna Tsaturyan, Researcher, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences, Armenia; Lecturer, Faculty of History, Yerevan State University, Armenia — Tangible Places, Intangible Threats: The Challenge of Preserving Intangible Heritage in Forced Displacement   Marc Mamigonian, Director of Academic Affairs, NAASR — More Questions Than Answers? Provenance Research as a Side Gig 04:30PM - 05:50PM Session 4: Roundtable Discussion on The Future of Armenian Heritage Studies   Melissa Bilal, Promise Chair in Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture; Director of Armenian Music Program; Assistant Professor, UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music — Moderator   Nelli Sargsyan, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Emerson College    Tamar Shirinian, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville   Anoush Suni, Postdoctoral Fellow, Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA 05:40PM - 06:10PM Armenian Traditional Storytelling    Sona Tatoyan, Actor, Writer, Producer — Resurrection of Ottoman Armenian Cultural Heritage via Karagöz Shadow Puppets 06:10PM - 07:00PM Reception   .. UCLA PAI conference on the protection and preservation of Armenian cultural heritage January 17, 2025 Guest Contributor Diaspora, Announcements 0 The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, in collaboration with the Fowler Museum at UCLA, is planning to hold an all-day conference on the protection and preservation of Armenian cultural heritage sites titled, “Armenian Cultural Heritage: Past, Present, and the Future.” This conference will take place on Saturday, February 8, 2025, from 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. (Pacific Time) at the Lenart Auditorium in the UCLA Fowler Museum. This conference will bring together a diverse group of experts to delve into the rich Armenian cultural heritage of the South Caucasus and present-day Eastern Turkey. The event will feature discussions on the current state of these heritage sites, their preservation efforts and initiatives to monitor, document and protect them amidst a challenging geopolitical landscape. Experts will also explore the future of cultural heritage studies, offering valuable insights and strategies for safeguarding this vital legacy. “As the global Armenian community continues to face destruction and loss of its heritage and culturally significant sites, from Turkey and Artsakh to Syria and Lebanon, it is absolutely crucial to have these conversations regarding documentation, monitoring and safeguarding of this heritage. A great many of these physical sites are hundreds of years old, some well over 1000 years old, and are a critical part of the long history of the Armenian people,” stated Professor Ann Karagozian, Director of the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute. “In Southern California, we have recently experienced extraordinary losses due to unprecedented firestorms, including material losses for many in our local Armenian-American community. What scholars locally are calling the ‘mass erasure of heritage’ refers to historic Southern California landmarks that are, in most cases, around 100 years old. It is thus all the more important for us to document the loss, and in many cases, purposeful destruction, of the cultural heritage of an entire people.” Registration for this event is required and free. To learn more and RSVP, please visit bit.ly/PAI02-08-25. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Registration will begin at 8:00 AM (Pacific Time), and the conference will start at 9:00 AM sharp. It is anticipated that the conference will be live-streamed on the Promise Armenian Institute’s YouTube Channel. This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, the UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, the UCLA Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies, the UCLA Promise Chair in Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture, the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law, the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research NAASR, the Ararat-Eskijian Museum and the UCLA Armenian Students’ Association.  .  C