Genocide and Collective Memory: Social Science of the Armenian case and beyond

Workshop organized by Joachim J. Savelsberg and Hakan Seckinelgin, 2018-2019 Paris IAS fellows

Presentation

The workshop aims to discuss some of the pressing questions for social science research on genocides and collective memory. The workshop is looking at these question by focusing on the case of the Armenian Genocide. The meeting is structured around number of questions including What kind of knowledge can social sciences provide fruitfully in studying the Armenian Genocide? What is the role of civil society in the formation of genocide knowledge? How does the context of other collective memory debates (Shoah, slavery, colonialism) play in shaping the memory of the Armenian genocide? Does memorial context matter? The invited participants will provide their reflections on these questions to motivate the discussions.

Participants

Boris Adjemian
Director, AGBU Nubar Library, Paris and Editor in Chief Études arméniennes contemporaines.

Seyhan Bayraktar
Research scholar in the Research Department Publicity and Society (FOG) of the ZHAW School of Management and Law, Zurich, Switzerland.
Areas of specialization are political communication, Turkey, European Union, migration and nationalism.

Hamit Bozarslan
Maître de conférence (1998), puis directeur d’études (2006) à l’EHESS.
Spécialiste de la Turquie et de la question kurde, il est l’auteur, notamment, de Crise, violence et dé-civilisation. Essai sur les angles morts de la cité (2019).

Öykü Güpinar
EHESS, a doctoral student who conducted research on topics such as the post-memory of Armenian youth in four countries (Turkey, Armenia, Lebanon and France). She is now working, under the direction of Claire Mouradian, on the role of the Armenian Genocide within history education in the above-mentioned four countries. For a summary of her PhD project see: http://www.theses.fr/s172286

Liora Israel
Maîtresse de conférences en sociologie à l’EHESS depuis 2006.
Ancienne directrice adjointe du CMH (2010-2014), membre de l’équipe PRO.

Marie-Claire Lavabre
Directrice de recherche au CNRS, Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique.
Directrice de l’ISP depuis 2010, elle a été responsable scientifique du Labex « Les Passés dans le Présent » entre 2014 et 2016.

Mark Levene
Reader in History at the University of Southampton.
His major focus in the last decade been in plotting and attempting to interpret the pattern of genocide in recent history.

Claire Mouradian
Directrice de recherche au CNRS, responsable de l'Equipe Caucase.
Chercheuse associée au CRH- EHESS.
Historienne française d'origine arménienne qui s'est spécialisée dans l'histoire et la géopolitique du Caucase et, plus spécifiquement, dans l'histoire de l'Arménie et de la diaspora arménienne.

Mark Osiel holds the Aliber Family Chair in Law at the University of Iowa. He has written several books examining how we may improve the law’s responses to mass atrocity by better understanding its organizational forms and social dynamics, including Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory, and the Law (Transaction, 1997), translated as Juger les Crimes de Masse: la Meìmoire Collective et le Droit (Seuil 2006).

Brian Schiff
Chair and Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention.

Jacques Semelin
Historien, directeur de recherches au CNRS (CERI-Sciences Po).
En 2008, Jacques Semelin a fondé à Sciences Po, avec une équipe de chercheurs, l'Encyclopédie en ligne des Violences de masse.

Ugur Umit Ungor
Associate Professor at the Department of History at Utrecht University and Research Fellow at the Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam.
His main areas of interest are state formation and nation formation, with a particular focus on mass violence at the intersections of social science and history.

Julien Zarifian
Maître de conférences en Civilisation américaine à l’Université de Cergy-Pontoise et chercheur au laboratoire Agora.
Docteur en géopolitique, de l’Institut Français de Géopolitique, Université Paris 8.

⚠ Workshop closed to the public ⚠