New Roads

Known as the mayor of the Internet, Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian headlined the first ever Innovate Armenia. He spoke about his commitment to the past 100 years of the Armenian narrative, but also about his excitement for the next 100 years. This talk was recorded live at Innovate Armenia on February 21, 2015 at USC. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Artist, author and playwright Vahe Berberian is best known for his comedy stand-up routines about life in Armenia and the diaspora. He spoke at the first Innovate Armenia about the necessity of revamping Armenian culture, and learning how to laugh without feeling guilty. This talk was recorded live at Innovate Armenia on February 21, 2015 at USC. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Harissa in Musa Dagh – Anthropology Professor Jens Kreinath of Wichita State University discusses his research with Salpi Ghazarian, director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies. Dr. Kreinath studies shared pilgrimage sites and Christian-Muslim relations in Hatay – historical Antioch, the southernmost province of Turkey, and home to Musa Dagh survivors in Vakifli, Turkey’s only remaining Armenian village. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Professor Murat Cankara, who teaches Turkish Language and Literature at the Social Science University in Ankara speaks on the question of identity in Armeno-Turkish texts -- decades of publications of Turkish language works written in Armenian characters. This talk took place at Innovate Armenia on April 2, 2016 at USC. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Professor Manuel Pastor, USC Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society & Social Change, & Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity, spoke on Mixing Identities: Immigrant Integration in Los Angeles. He is also director of the USC Program for Environmental & Regional Equity & of the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. This talk took place at Innovate Armenia on April 2, 2016 at USC. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Dr. Mehmet Fatih Uslu, Assistant Professor of Turkish Language and Literature at Istanbul Shehir University, translated Zabel Yesayan's works from Armenian to Turkish. In this episode, Dr. Uslu talks about his "adventure with Armenian and with Zabel Yesayan." This talk took place at Innovate Armenia on May 18, 2019 at USC. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Dr. Ari Sekeryan, an honorary fellow of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, speaks about growing up and learning to be Armenian in Turkey. This talk took place at Innovate Armenia on September 23, 2017 at USC. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Dr. Irina Ghaplanyan is Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Nature Protection. She earned a PhD in political science from the University of Cambridge and is a published author specializing in states in transition, conflict resolution, and security studies. In this episode, Dr. Ghaplanyan discusses Armenia’s evolving environmental policy. The talk took place at Innovate Armenia on May 18, 2019 at USC. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Mysteries, miracles, and occasional miseries – Victor Agadjanian, professor of sociology at UCLA, comes across these phenomena in his research. From studying the sexual risks of migrants, to gender ideology in Karabakh, he focuses on social demography and migration. In conversation with Salpi Ghazarian, director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, Dr. Agadjanian discusses his studies from Africa to Armenia. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

From Jerusalem to Nebraska, Dr. Bedross Der Matossian, Assoc. Professor of Modern Middle East History at the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, remembers life in a post-Ottoman city, and describes his path toward a study of the politics of the late Ottoman period. He speaks with Salpi Ghazarian, Director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies. Dr. Der Matossian is currently president of the Society for Armenian Studies. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Karabakh or Artsakh? Border security or daily life challenges? Armine Aleksanyan discusses these questions in conversation with Salpi Ghazarian, Director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies. Aleksanyan has been serving as the Deputy Foreign Minister of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) since 2015. She is a graduate of both the Artsakh State University and the Diplomatic Academy of London at University of Westminster. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

From village boy, to student activist, to prisoner of conscience, to economist turned historian and sociologist, Dr. Taner Akçam has lived many lives. In conversation with Salpi Ghazarian, Director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, Dr. Akçam chronicles his unique journey to becoming a leading scholar in Armenian Genocide studies. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

He’s a boy from a village near Ardahan, a “revolutionary”, then a “terrorist” in the words of the Turkish government, and now an academic - Dr. Taner Akçam is a leading historian of the Armenian Genocide. After escaping a Turkish prison, he began his research on political violence in the late Ottoman Empire and early Republic of Turkey. Dr. Akçam is the Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Inclusion and exclusion: the challenges of identity formation during childhood in Turkey, and in the study of children during genocide -- Dr. Nazan Maksudyan writes on these topics. Her research focuses on the history of children and youth in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries, with a focus on non-Muslims and gender, sexuality, education and humanitarianism. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.

Language and identity— but this time also about belonging and anxiety (or guilt) – Dr. Shushan Karapetian researches these issues in the framework of heritage languages in a diasporic context. In conversation with Salpi Ghazarian, director of the Institute of Armenian Studies, they discuss the trajectory of bilingual education, and the link between the Armenian language and expressions of Armenianness. To learn more about the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, visit http://armenian.usc.edu.