UCLA CONFERENCE ON THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF ARMENIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE

Los Angeles, CA — The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, in collaboration with the Fowler Museum at UCLA, is planning to hold an all-day conference on the protection and preservation of Armenian cultural heritage sites titled, “Armenian Cultural Heritage: Past, Present, and the Future.”
This conference will take place on Saturday, February 8, 2025, from 8 AM – 7 PM (Pacific Time) at the Lenart Auditorium in the UCLA Fowler Museum.
This conference will bring together a diverse group of experts to delve into the rich Armenian cultural heritage of the South Caucasus and present-day Eastern Turkey.
The event will feature discussions on the current state of these heritage sites, their preservation efforts, and initiatives to monitor, document, and protect them amidst a challenging geopolitical landscape. Experts will also explore the future of cultural heritage studies, offering valuable insights and strategies for safeguarding this vital legacy.
“As the global Armenian Community continues to face destruction and loss of its heritage and culturally significant sites, from Turkey and Artsakh to Syria and Lebanon, it is absolutely crucial to have these conversations regarding documentation, monitoring, and safeguarding of this heritage. A great many of these physical sites are hundreds of years old, some well over 1000 years old, and are a critical part of the long history of the Armenian people,” stated Professor Ann Karagozian, Director of the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute. “In Southern California we have recently experienced extraordinary losses due to unprecedented firestorms, including material losses for many in our local Armenian-American community. What scholars locally are calling the ‘mass erasure of heritage’ refers to historic Southern California landmarks that are in most cases around 100 years old. It is thus all the more important for us to document the loss, and in many cases, purposeful destruction, of the cultural heritage of an entire people.”
Registration for this event is required and free. To learn more and RSVP, please visit bit.ly/PAI02-08-25.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Registration will begin at 8 AM (Pacific Time), and the conference will start at 9 AM It is anticipated that the conference will be live-streamed on the Promise Armenian Institute’s YouTube Channel.
This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, the UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, the UCLA Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies, the UCLA Promise Chair in Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture, the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law, the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research NAASR, the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, and the UCLA Armenian Students’ Association.