CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—A one-day conference on “America’s Response to the Armenian Genocide: From Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama” will take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on March 13. The conference, co-organized by Professors Bedross Der Matossian and Christopher Capozzola of MIT and sponsored by the Faculty of History, the Center for International Studies (CIS), the Office of the Religious Affairs, and the Program on Human Rights & Justice (PHRJ), will be held in Building 10, Room 250 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The goal of the conference is to discuss and examine America’s evolving policy toward the Armenian Genocide from World War I through the present day. Although the Armenian Genocide is increasingly recognized as one of the foundational events of the 20th century’s painful history of political and ethnic violence, scholars who have examined its impact on U.S. foreign policy have concentrated almost exclusively on the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. But the legacy of the Armenian Genocide shaped U.S. policy through the 20th century as Americans confronted the meaning of “genocide” itself in the wake of World War II, as they confronted Armenia’s pivotal place in the tense Cold War conflict, as Armenian Diaspora voices pressed Congress for recognition, and as geopolitics shifted again with the unification of Europe and U.S. intervention in the Middle East.
By bringing together experts on Armenia, specialists in U.S. foreign relations, and historians of ethnic conflict, genocide, and humanitarian intervention, the conference seeks to further incorporate Armenian history into historical and social scientific disciplines and to foster dialogue between area studies specialists and U.S. historians.
Panels will discuss three major historical phases that shaped U.S. policy towards the Armenian Genocide: World War I, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War era. The latter two periods remain particularly understudied periods.
Confirmed speakers at the conference include Prof. Roger Petersen (MIT), Prof. Richard Hovannisian (UCLA), Prof. Christopher Capozzola (MIT), Prof. Simon Payaslian (BU), Prof. Dennis Papazian (University of Michigan-Dearborn), Michael Bobelian (lawyer, author, and journalist), Gregory Aftandilian (independent scholar), Dr. Rouben Adalian (ANI), Marc Mamigonian (NAASR), Dr. Suzanne Moranian (AIWA), and Prof. Bedross Der Matossian (MIT). A keynote speech will be delivered by Hovannisian, who holds the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA.
For more information, email Der Matossian at bedross@mit.edu.
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