Armenian Research Center

Dr. Sahakyan's paper titled "Transcultural Armenianness" examined the lived experiences, practices and expressions of Armenianness that have evolved throughout the past century beyond the Armenian speaking communities and spaces in the US and France. 

Full program of the conference: "Diaspora(s) arménienne(s) en mouvement : espaces, pratiques et acteurs au 21ème siècle", March 14-15, Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers, France

Dr. Sahakyan's chapter titled "Transnational Politics and Governmental Strategies in the Formative Years of the Post-Genocide Armenian Diaspora (1920s-1930s)" was recently published in The Armenian Diaspora and Stateless Power: Collective Identity in the Transnational 20th Century (Talar Chahinian, Sossie Kasbarian, Tsolin Nalbantian, eds.) by Bloomsbury publishing (2023).

"Transnational Politics and Governmental Strategies in the Formative Years of the Post-Genocide Armenian Diaspora (1920s-1930s)"  explores the transnational governmental efforts of the exiled leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and the Bolshevik government of Soviet Armenia in the period between 1920s and 1930s to propose an approach to diasporic governmentality that is multi-centered, involving both state- and diaspora-based agents with incompatible ideologies and governmental aspirations. It argues that the governmental strategies of the Armenian leaders and institutions involved three parallel processes: 

a) discursive construction of Armenian collective needs, 

b) creation of spaces of socialization, in which dispersed Armenian populations and their diaspora-born descendants would be exposed to these discourses on a regular basis, and 

c) expansion of their governmental efforts over the organized and established Armenian spaces in the diaspora. In addition, the ARF leaders also employed social discipline and exclusion to deal with dissenting voices and to consolidate the party’s ranks around the anti-Soviet discourse. 

Transnational activities of various state and non-state actors, as the chapter concludes, may end up fractioning diasporic spaces locally, nationally, and transnationally, rather than integrating dispersed populations into a singular governable and governmental space.

The Armenian Research Center co-organized the second leg of "The Soviet Experience in Armenia and its Legacy"  in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the National Academy of Science of Armenia. Dr. Armen Zakarian, the UM-Dearborn Vice Provost for Research, Dr. Martin Hershok, the Dean of CASL, and Dr. Ara Sanjian, the director of ARC, welcomed in their opening remarks the participants of the conference, stressing the important collaboration between the two institutions. Dr. Sahakyan presented a paper on the second panel, sparking discussions on Soviet Armenia's complicated relations with the Armenian diasporic political parties and institutions

The Armenian Society of Fellows (ASOF) is a non-profit organization, that connects Armenian scholars of various backgrounds to serve one mission: to help raise Armenia’s educational and research institutions to world-class levels and to network them globally. The ASOF holds annual conferences, bringing together scholars from various parts of the world, and the various task forces to report on their activities. Dr. Sanjian and Dr. Sahakyan attended the ASOF Dilijan conference, engaging in interdisciplinary dialogues and sharing insights. Dr Sahakyan shared his impressions from the ASOF Conference with CivilNet -- a major news reporting agency in Armenia. 

On June 29, 2023, Dr. Sanjian and Dr. Sahakyan met with the Director of the National Library of Armenia (NLA) to the discuss scope and areas of future collaboration. The meeting was followed by an exchange of book donations. 

Dr. Sahakyan was subsequently invited to give a talk at the NLA on current metadata cataloging practices in the United States. The presentation, which took place on July 7, 2023, engaged the audience in an interesting Q&A and discussion on the ways in which cataloging practices in America and in Armenia could be aligned for the benefit of global users of Armenian language resources. 

This year, the collaboration between the Armenian Research Center and the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan was marked by book exchanges and a lecture that Dr. Sanjian delivered on July 13, 2023. 

While in Armenia, Dr. Sanjian delivered several lectures and participated in panel discussions and podcast interviews. These included:

• The interview with Nazeli Ohanyan (Public Radio of Armenia), June 23
• The podcast interview with Karpis Pashoyan and Gor Madoyan on Aliq Media, June 24
• The interview with Siranush Papyan on 1in.am, Julne 29
• The panel discussion on the "Pan-Armenian Science and Education" conference, hosted by EDU Armenia, July 3 
• Lecture on "Relations between Soviet Armenia and Diaspora" (Part 1, 1920-1953, Part 2, 1953-1991) ANI Centre, July 5
• Lecture at the History Museum of Armenia on the challenges of the writing the history of Armenians in Lebanon, July 7
   

  

   

Dr. Sahakyan was invited to participate as a panelist on the Armenian National Youth Forum, hosted by the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, on August 1-3, 2023.

Dr. Sahakyan was later invited to share his impressions and views on diaspora engagement policies in the interview with Sago Arian, August 6.