"Infidelities" is an international two-day conference about new directions in the study of Armenian history, memory, culture and displacement across West Asia and the Middle East to the Americas and back presented in partnership with scholars and programs at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and University of California, Los Angeles.
The field of Armenian Studies is on the verge of a sea change. In the last ten years, scholars and artists have made a bid to shift the field's focus to a broader range of new, interdisciplinary and transnational topics through the lenses of critical theory, feminist theory, queer studies, and postcolonial studies. In collaboration with scholars and programs at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and San Francisco State University, "Infidelities" both marks and shapes this auspicious moment with international scholars, curators, filmmakers, visual artists, physical theatre performers and a sound performer, all of whom work either directly in, or tangentially to, Armenian Studies, to flesh out new visions for the field and for the understanding of Armenianness. The aim is to center critical, queer-feminist, postcolonial and performative approaches to the study of Armenian history, diaspora, memory, language, culture and displacement within and beyond the Middle East, wider West Asia, and the Americas.
Participating Scholars
Hakem al-Rustom
Shushan Avagyan
Kathryn Babayan
Houri Berberian
Rachel Goshgarian
Karen Jallatyan
Joanne Randa Nucho
Ayşe Parla
Nelli Sargsyan
Gayane Shagoyan
Tamar Shirinian
Anoush Suni
Ania Loomba
Suvir Kaul
Artists
Arpi Adamyan (Armenia/USA)
Aikaterini Gegisian (Greece)
Marianna Hovhannissian (Armenia/USA)
Rüya Kılınçkini (Turkey)
Lara Sarkissian (USA)
lucine talalyan (Armenia)
Méliné Ter Minassian (France)
March 27, 2020
9am-7pm
Panel I: Land, Memory & Trauma (Revisited)
Panel II: Feminist & Postcolonial Contestations
Artist Talk and Exhibition
Panel III: Building Community in Displacement*
Film Screening 1: Urban Place-Making*
* Events will take place at the ICA
March 28, 2020
9:30am-11pm
Panel IV: Embodiment & Its Discontents
Live Physical Theatre Performance
Panel V: Re-Imagining Archives
Film Screening 2: Queering Culture
Roundtable: New Directions?
Final Reception and Sound Performance