Prominent Scholars to Speak at Centennial Conference in NY

NEW YORK—Scholars Richard Hovannisian, Debórah Dwork, Raymond Kévorkian, Roy L. Brooks, Elisa Von Joeden-Forgey, Janna Thompson, and Jermaine McCalpin are among the confirmed speakers at “Responsibility 2015,” the international conference marking the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, to be held on March 13-15, 2015, at New York’s Marriott Marquis Hotel at Times Square.

The conference features 12 concurrent panels, lectures, and photography and art exhibits.

Hovannisian is Professor Emeritus of History and the first holder of the AEF Chair in Modern Armenian History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is currently Chancellor’s Fellow at Chapman University and Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Southern California (USC) for academic support to the Shoah Foundation Institute.

Dwork is Rose Professor of Holocaust History at Clark University and founding director of the Strassler Center. Dedicated to teaching, research, and public service, she is a leading authority on university education in this field. A member of the U.S. delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Dwork also serves on advisory boards and works with non-profit organizations concerned with Holocaust education. She is the author of many books, including A Boy in Terezín (2012) and Flight from the Reich (2009). Her current book project, Saints and Liars, explores the history of Americans who traveled to Europe to aid and rescue imperiled Jews.

Kévorkian is the author of The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History, a detailed and meticulous record of the genocidal process that provides an authoritative analysis of the events and their impact upon the Armenian community, as well as the development of the Turkish state. His other works include important publications on early Armenian printed books: Catalogue des “Incunables” Arméniens (1511/1695), Les Arméniens dans l’Empire Ottoman à la Veille du Génocide (with Paul Paboudjian); La Cilicie (1909-1921): Des Massacres d’Adana Au Mandat Francais; and L’Extermination des Deportes Armeniens Ottomans dans les Camps de Concentration de Syrie-Mespotamie (1915-1916). In 2010, he was presented with the Presidential Award from Armenian President Serge Sarkisian in recognition of his enormous contributions as a scholar.

Brooks teaches and writes in the areas of legal and critical theory, civil procedure, civil rights, and employment discrimination. He joined the University of San Diego (USD) School of Law faculty in 1979. He has received national book awards including the Gustavus Meyers Outstanding Book Award (twice) and the Brandeis University Library Learned Research Journal Award. Brooks is the author of 20 books, including Racial Inequality Beyond Racial Discrimination (Columbia University Press, forthcoming, 2016), Racial Justice in the Age of Obama (Princeton University Press, 2009); Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations (University of California Press, 2004); When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice (New York University Press, 1999); and Integration or Separation? A Strategy for Racial Equality (Harvard University Press, 1996).

Forgey is Assistant Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Prior to this, she was a visiting scholar in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her Ph.D. degree in modern German and African history. She has taught courses on genocide, human rights, war, and imperialism. Her work on German imperial history has been published in several journals and collected volumes. Forgey’s current research on gender and genocide has appeared in the Journal of Genocide Studies and Prevention, the Oxford Handbook on Genocide, the collected volume New Directions in Genocide Research, and the forthcoming books Hidden Genocide: Power, Knowledge and Memory and Reconstructing Genocide Prevention. She is currently completing a book on gender and the prevention of genocide that will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Thompson is a professor in the Philosophy Program at La Trobe University. She is the author of four books and many articles on topics such as historical justice, global justice, reparation, reconciliation, intergenerational justice, feminism, and environmental ethics. Her book Taking Responsibility for the Past won the 2006 Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics. She was the Humphrey Visiting Professor in Modern Feminism at Waterloo University in Ontario, Canada, in 2007. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

McCalpin is currently associate director of the Center for Caribbean Thought and Lecturer of Transitional Justice in the Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Mona. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from the University of the West Indies, Mona. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Brown University. McCalpin specializes in Africana political philosophy, Caribbean political thought, and transitional justice. His research interests include truth commissions and political accountability, as well as reparations for slavery, Native American extermination, and the Armenian Genocide. McCalpin has written on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its development of a restorative justice approach to South Africa’s transitional justice issues, as well as the moral justification for reparations for slavery and the Armenian Genocide.

Earlier, the organizers had announced the names of other confirmed speakers, including Jurist Geoffrey Robertson and journalist Robert Fisk, actor and playwright Eric Bogosian, photojournalist Scout Tufankjian, and novelist Chris Bohjalian.

The “Responsibility 2015” conference is being organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Eastern U.S. Centennial Committee, under the auspices of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of America, Eastern Region.

The organizing committee is comprised of the following scholars and activists: Khatchig Mouradian and Hayg Oshagan, co-chairs; George Aghjayan, Kim Hekimian, Antranig Kasbarian, and Henry Theriault.

For periodic updates, e-mail Sarkis Balkhian at info@responsibility2015.org, visit the conference website at www.responsibility2015.com, or the conference Facebook page.