Panel Discussion in Glendale to Spotlight Issues Relating to Armenian Diaspora

GLENDALE—Abril Bookstore will present a panel discussion with Dr. Talar Chahinian, Lilit Keshishyan, Gegham Mughnetsyan and Hrag Papazian, who will discuss issues from the newly released book, which they have all contributed to, titled, “Armenian Diaspora and Stateless Power: Collective Identity in the Transnational 20th Century.” The event will be held on Tuesday, November 12 at 7 p.m., at the Center for Armenians Arts, located at 250 N. Orange St., Glendale, CA 91203.

From genocide, forced displacement, and emigration, to the gradual establishment of sedentary and rooted global communities, how has the Armenian diaspora formed and maintained a sense of collective identity?

“Armenian Diaspora and Stateless Power” explores the richness and magnitude of the Armenian experience through the 20th century to examine how Armenian diaspora elites and their institutions emerged in the post-genocide period and used “stateless power” to compose forms of social discipline. Historians, cultural theorists, literary critics, sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists explore how national and transnational institutions were built in far-flung sites from Istanbul, Aleppo, Beirut and Jerusalem to Paris, Los Angeles, and the American mid-west.

Exploring literary and cultural production, as well as the role of religious institutions, the book probes the history and experience of the Armenian diaspora through the long 20th century, from the role of the fin-de-siècle émigré Armenian press to the experience of Syrian-Armenian asylum seekers in the 21st century. It shows that a diaspora’s statelessness can not only be evidence of its power, but also how this “stateless power” acts as an alternative and complement to the nation-state.

Dr. Talar Chahinian is the co-editor of “Armenian Diaspora and Stateless Power.” She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA and lectures in the Program for Armenian Studies at UC Irvine, where she is also Visiting Faculty in the Department of Comparative Literature. She has also authored, “Stateless: The Politics of the Armenian Language in Exile” (Syracuse University Press, 2023).

Lilit Keshishyan is a Lecturer in the Writing Program at USC, where she has been teaching upper and lower division writing and critical reasoning courses since 2018.

Gegham Mughnetsyan is the Chitjian Researcher Archivist of the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies.

Hrag Papazian is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and the holder of the Turpanjian Early Career Chair in Contemporary Armenian Studies at the University of Southern California.

Admission to the event free. For more information, call (818) 243-4112. 90 minutes free parking is available in structure.