Several events — including an academic conference, a film series and the premiere of a new opera — will take place on campus to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
The Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History presents the conference, "Genocide and Global History," April 10-11 at the UCLA Faculty Center.
The conference will feature six panel discussions with world-renowned scholars at the UCLA Faculty Center. Threading together the panels will be the concern of embedding the Armenian-Ottoman tragedy within the larger contexts of global history, emphasizing the comparative and connective aspects of this defining event in the historical trajectories of Armenians, Turks and others in the course of a “century of genocides.”
On Friday evening at Schoenberg Hall, scholars Hovannisian, Ronald Grigor Suny and Murat Belge will each provide their reflections, with musical interludes by the Armenian Music Ensemble of UCLA under the direction of Movses Poghossian.
Additional participating scholars include Norman Naimark, Donald Bloxham, Jay Winter, Dirk Moses, Gary Bass, Gerard Libaridian, Donald Miller, Bülent Bilmez, Bedross Der Matossian, Uğur Ümit Üngör, Janet Klein, Ruken Şengul, Murat Yildiz, Sossie Kasbarian and Dzovinar Derderian, among others.
The conference is co-sponsored by UCLA's Gustave Von Grunebaum Center for Near East Studies, the Center for European and Eurasian Studies, the UCLA Department of History and the Organization of Istanbul Armenians.
Find details at this website. For additional information, email professor Sebouth Aslanian, who holds the Hovannisian Endowed Chair and organized the conference.
The UCLA Hammer Museum presents "I Am Armenian: A Year of Armenian Culture and History on Film," a free series.
April 14: "Aghet – Ein Völkermord"
Although there is an international consensus that up to 1.5 million Armenians died in the Ottoman Turkish Empire between 1915 and 1918, the Armenian genocide is still not recognized by Turkey as a historical fact. Acclaimed German director Eric Friedler’s award-winning documentary, "Aghet – Ein Völkermord," deals with the political motives for this continuing silence. A Q&A with German film director Eric Friedler follows the screening. Find information and live-streaming details here.
May 14: "The River Ran Red"
The epic search for survivors of the Armenian genocide of 1915 along the Euphrates River is told in this gripping film. From his archives of 400 testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses, award-winning filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian weaves a compelling story of terrifying intensity, taking the viewer from the highland waters of the river to the burning deserts of Syria. Find information and live-streaming details here.
"An Armenian Requiem" debuts on April 22.
A new work by UCLA music professor Ian Krouse, a composer of international renown, "An Armenian Requiem" makes its premier at Royce Hall. As the first full requiem in the Armenian language, the work is based on major liturgical selections from the Armenian Requiem Service and interpolated with poems by great Armenian poets.
The concert is presented by UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music and the Lark Musical Society, which commissioned Krouse to compose the opera. Conducted by UCLA Orchestral Studies director Neal Stulberg, one of America’s great maestros, the production features the Lark Chorus, the UCLA Symphonia and celebrated soloists from around the world.
Find information at the Lark Musical Society.
