“The State of Armenian Genocide Studies: Problems and Challenges”

ANN ARBOR, MI — Armenian Studies Program (ASP) at University of Michigan will present a lecture by Prof. Taner Akcam titled “The State of Armenian Genocide Studies: Problems and Challenges” on March 13, 2015 as part of Dr. Berj H. Haidostian Annual Distinguished Lecture series.

When Michael J. Hagopian made his first classic acclaimed documentary on the Armenian genocide in 1975, which won him two Emmys, he called it, “the forgotten Genocide.” Decades have passed since then and hundreds of publications in a variety of languages have been printed on the subject. Far from a “forgotten Genocide,” today the Armenian genocide holds an important place within the field of Genocide studies.

This talk will address the problems that are endemic to the field of Armenian genocide studies. What challenges do we face? How can we continue to develop an academically rigorous field amidst a toxic and politicized environment resulting from a policy of denial by the Turkish state? Akcam will delineate the different stages that Armenian genocide studies has traversed as he evaluates the state of field today.

The Dr. Berj Haidostian Annual Distinguished lectureship was established by the family of the late Dr. Berj Haidostian, a prominent and devoted physician in Michigan; the annual lecturer is selected jointly by the Armenian studies faculty and the Haidostian family from among internationally recognized experts on Armenia and Armenians. The Haidostian family has a long and continuing relationship with the University and the Armenian Studies Program.

Taner Akçam is a historian and sociologist who holds the Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. He has written extensively on the Ottoman-Turkish Genocide of the Armenians in the early 20th century. His most well-known works are A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan Books, 2006), and Young Turks’ Crime against humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton University Press, 2012).