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Valentina Calzolari & Simon Payaslian to Discuss Armenians in Switze

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  • Valentina Calzolari & Simon Payaslian to Discuss Armenians in Switze

    PRESS RELEASE
    National Association for Armenian
    Studies and Research (NAASR)
    395 Concord Avenue
    Belmont, MA 02478
    Tel.: 617-489-1610
    E-mail: [email protected]


    VALENTINA CALZOLARI AND SIMON PAYASLIAN TO
    DISCUSS The Armenians IN Switzerland and New England


    Dr. Valentina Calzolari and Dr. Simon Payaslian will participate in a
    joint presentation entitled "The Armenians from the Caucasus and
    Anatolia to Switzerland and New England in the 19th and 20th
    Centuries" on Friday, June 13, 2014, at 7:00 p.m., at swissnex Boston,
    420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA. The program is co-sponsored by
    Université de Genève, Boston University, swissnex Boston, and the
    National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).

    It is requested that attendees register in advance (free of charge)
    online. Link:
    http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-armenians-from-the-caucasus-and-anatolia-to-switzerland-and-new-england-in-the-19th-and-20th-tickets-11845228397

    Dr. Calzolari will speak on "Armenian Revolutionaries in Geneva and
    Lausanne at the End of the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the
    Twentieth Centuries." In 1913, the Armenian revolutionary Avetis
    Aharonian proposed to take Switzerland as a model for the renewal of
    the Armenian society, economy and customs, claiming the necessity of a
    rupture with the past. But at the same time, in another context, he
    praised the continuity of the Armenian identity and traditions. For
    example, in his dissertation defended at the University of Lausanne
    the same year he insisted on the sacred role of the fireplace as a
    symbol of the Armenian family's identity, while in an Armenian work he
    denounced the wastefulness of this practice. At the beginning of the
    twentieth century, the relationships between Swiss and Armenian were
    intensive and many Armenians were exiled in Geneva. This talk will
    approach the idealization of Switzerland as a social and economic
    model and asks the general problem of new social and economic
    imperatives requiring a break with ancient and traditional identity.

    Dr. Payaslian's talk, "The Origins of the Armenian Community in New
    England and the Construction of Armenian-American "Cultural
    Congruence," will cover the origins and development of the Armenian
    community in the United States, with a focus on the New England
    region, from the 1880s to the 1920s. The early Armenian immigrants to
    the New World sought preservation of their Armenian national identity
    while seeking integration into American society. While many Armenians
    emphasized the preservation of Armenianness and struggled against
    foreignization, others stressed the imperatives of cultural
    integration and rapid economic growth. Payaslian will cover the case
    of the Armenia journal, published in Boston from 1904 to 1913, which
    promoted the idea of "cultural congruence" between Armenian and
    American values.

    Dr. Valentina Calzolari Bouvier is Professor of Armenian Studies and
    Chair of the Department of Mediterranean, Slavic and Oriental
    Languages and Literatures at the University of Geneva, currently in
    sabbatical as a visiting scholar at Harvard University. She is the
    current President of the International Association of Armenian
    Studies. Dr. Simon Payaslian is the Charles K. and Elizabeth
    M. Kenosian Chair in Modern Armenian History and Literature at Boston
    University. His most recent book is The Political Economy of Human
    Rights in Armenia:
    Authoritarianism and Democracy in a Former Soviet Republic (2011).
    More information about the lecture contact NAASR at 617-489-1610 or
    [email protected] or swissnex Boston at 617-876-3076 or [email protected]



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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