International

Richard Hovannisian

as Distinguished Professor

at Florida Atlantic and Clark Universities

March-April 2008

Florida Atlantic University - Clark University MA




  • Richard Hovannisian as Distinguished Professor at Florida Atlantic and Clark Universities
     
    UCLA­Richard G. Hovannisian, AEF Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, has been invited as a distinguished visiting professor at Florida Atlantic University and Clark University, two leading institutions with programs in Holocaust and Genocide studies, during the months of March and April.

                                              Florida Atlantic University

    At Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, from mid-March to mid-April, Hovannisian will be the first Jim and Marta Batmasian visiting scholar associated with FAU’s Holocaust Center and its Ph.D. Program in Comparative Studies. He will teach a graduate seminar on “Recent Historiography on the Armenian Genocide,” be the guest speaker of the "Friends of the Raddock Chair" in Holocaust Studies on March 19, make a presentation to the parish of St. David Armenian Church on March 21, and give two public lectures at FAU on the Armenian Genocide as a prototype on April 2 and 6. Professor Alan Berger, Raddock Family Eminent Scholar in Holocaust Studies, stated: “We are elated and most honored that Professor Hovannisian will join us at FAU, and know that he will contribute greatly to our understanding of the Armenian Genocide in comparative perspective.”

                                                   Clark University

    From Florida, Richard Hovannisian will travel to Worcester, Massachusetts, as a distinguished visiting professor at Clark University, its Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies and Modern Armenian History and its Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. As the search for the next occupant for the Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair is being conducted, Hovannisian will help to maintain the program’s continuity by meeting with graduate students in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, giving guest lectures on the subjects of “Premeditation or Incremental Violence in the Armenian Genocide?”; “Denial of the Armenian Genocide in Comparative Perspective”; “Oral History: How Reliable Is It?”; “The Landscape of Historic Western Armenia”; and “Must We Still Remember? The Armenian Genocide”, and a “Lunch and Learn Seminar.” His visit will commence with receptions by Clark President John Bassett and Provost David Angel and will include events with Professor Deborah Dwork, Director of the Strassler Family Center, the Kaloosdian and Mugar families and other donors to the Armenian Program, and the Armenian community of Central Massachusetts.

                                                   Recent Activities

    During the Winter Quarter at UCLA, Professor Hovannisian has maintained a busy schedule of teaching, community outreach, and conferences. In January, he participated in the American Historical Association’s Annual Conference held in Washington D.C., chairing a panel on Armenian repatriation, and in a program in the Armenian Church Western Diocese reflected on the legacy of Hrant Dink. In February, he lectured on Armenian subjects in Frankfurt and Cologne, Germany, gave a keynote talk at the Armenian Graduate Studies Conference at UCLA, and participated in a dialogue with Taner Akcam in a major human rights convocation at California State University, Long Beach, with Professors Houri Berberian and Ali Ingman as moderators.

    On February 29-March 1, as the Holder of the AEF Chair in Armenian History, Hovannisian organized the seventeenth consecutive international conference on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, this one devoted to the communities of the Northeastern Mediterranean: Dort-Yol, Musa Dagh, and Kessab. On March 6, he participated in a UCLA panel on genocide denial sponsored by the undergraduate and graduate Armenian Student Associations and the Shant ARF Student Committee. On March 7, he spoke under the auspices of the Toronto AGBU on the Historic Armenian Provinces, and on March 9 gave a power-point presentation in a program organized by the Armenian National Committee of New Jersey.

               During this same period, three new publications by Professor Hovannisian were released: 1). The Armenian Genocide: Ethical and Cultural Legacies (Transaction Books); 2). Armenian Cilicia (Simon Payaslian, co-editor; Mazda Publishers); 3). Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniia Respubliki Armeniia, 1918-1920 (International Relations of the Republic of Armenia), a Russian translation of fifteen selected chapters from his four-volume The Republic of Armenia (Armenian Academy of Sciences). He also wrote the chapter on the Armenian Genocide in the photographic collection by Lane Montgomery, Never Again, Again, Again …. Genocide.