Oct 28, 2016 | 1:10 PM - 2:40 PM | Main Loft

Ms. DUYGU GUL KAYA, PhD Candidate (Expected Defense July 2017)

In pursuit of historical truth: Armenian Youth’s Post-memory Work in Diaspora

In my paper, I look at how Armenian youth in diaspora respond to the ongoing genocide denial by Turkey and make a claim for historical truth. I analyze post-memory narratives (Hirsch 2001; 2008) produced for “100 Voices,” a multi-media project carried out by Armenian youth in Toronto to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide. I argue that “100 Voices” can be seen as a “visual archive” produced by youth in diaspora. As Baronian aptly observes, Armenians respond to denial by producing “evidential visual accounts” of the genocide (2014, 95). The ‘evidence’ in the case of “100 Voices” is post-memories of youth, which are produced in the “new mnemo-historical genre” of video testimony (Assmann 2006), and circulated through new digital media.

Moreover, these post-memories are imbued with anxiety over how to remember the genocide in the absence of survivors, as well as how to keep the Armenian identity intact, especially in the face of assimilation. These anxieties, in my opinion, can best be understood in the sense of a ‘duty of memory.’ Derived from a distinct generational position, this is a sense of responsibility not only to remember the genocide in the face of denial, but also to pass it onto next generations and to work towards genocide recognition. In addition, I contend that Armenian youth emerge as moral mnemonic agents in “100 Voices.” They talk through the language of trauma and embrace a mission of “giving voice to the voiceless,” thereby appealing not only to the “Armenian trans-nation” (Tölölyan 2010), but simultaneously to the Canadian and international audience. Their post-memories are formed at the intersection of Armenian diaspora institutions, Canadian multiculturalism, and multidirectional memory discourses (Rothberg 2009) around victimhood, trauma, historical justice, and human rights.

Ms. Ani Tatintsyan, MA

To Remember and Demand

Last year marked the 100th year of the Armenian genocide. The official slogan was “We Remember and Demand”, there’s a specific importance placed upon memory that allows us to protest, this is perhaps why the Armenian community wanted it to be known that after a century, there was still memory and as long as there was memory there was a sense of melancholy, and engagement with the past that was used as a tool in the demand for recognition.

I plan to examine memory as an important tool in political work. I will draw from the works of Hannah Arendt in order to articulate the importance of memory in the preservations of political action. In the preface to her book, Between Past and Future, Arendt writes about a “lost treasure” of political uprisings. This “treasure” it seems, according to her, is a kind of moment, a gap in time that belong to neither the past nor the future – where the possibility of “the moment of truth” is always present. The treasure is lost because of the failure to name, the failure to understand, but most importantly the failure to remember to truly articulate. So there exists something about truth, that relies heavily on memory.

I also work with Walter Benjamin’s “Theses on the Philosophy of History” and the importance it places on the constant dialogue with the past and establishing an active and open relationship with history. “Nothing that has ever happened should be lost for history,” writes Benjamin in “Theses of the Philosophy of History”. The importance of memory in the demand for recognition of experiences, especially for disadvantaged groups in history, is an important part of his insistence on the ways history should be represented. The political work the Armenian people are doing, merely by articulating the existence of their memories should be considered here as a “retroactive force” as Benjamin suggests, calling into question histories written by the “victor.” Finally, I argue that the Armenian community’s protest for recognition proposes a Benjaminian concept of ‘historical materialism’ by utilizing loss and memory as a political and cultural value of production, working with both the past for the creation of a future.

Waged Jafer

Narratives of Victimhood of a Minority within a minority: Identity and Inclusion of Shia Muslim Diaspora in British Columbia

In today’s global crisis of refugees in many part of the world, persecuted religious minorities occupy the largest number. Among them is the historical and continuous plight of Shiites Muslims as it remains generally unknown to the rest of the world, as they are usually prohibited from making their suffering public, fearing persecution in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Syria, Pakistan to this day. Put simply, “the Muslim minority whose origin and history is steeped in grief and victimization ”, continues as the world including the Arab world stands by and watches. The memory of oppression and systematic marginalization has become a part of their everyday; the fear and the feeling of vulnerability, imposed by the state has inevitably produced victimized politicized identities, causing not only current suffering but with the potential to poison the future generation. My current research seeks to address this concept of a ‘victimized identity’ amongst persecuted religious minorities after they seek refuge away from home(and for the purpose of this research in Canada.). The process of immigration is in itself a “painful” process for many and for many of persecuted religious minorities who move to a new place in addition to that pain of immigration there is also a sense of victimhood that never ceases to exist unless it is recognized and treated. By compiling narratives, I seek to not only give voice to stories not yet heard, but to examine the extent to which multicultural nature provides a safe space for these narratives to emerge. Such narratives, create an effective form of agency for change that through narratives and lived experiences never before shared such vulnerable communities may achieve recognition.

Biographies

Duygu Gul Kaya

I am a PhD candidate in Sociology at York University and hold an MA from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. For my doctoral project, I investigate transnational dynamics of postmemory work by Armenian youth in Toronto, particularly in the context of the hundred-year anniversary (or Centennial) of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. My broader research interests include memory studies, theories of transnationalism and diaspora, and current debates around citizenship and belonging. During my graduate studies at York, I have presented in many conferences, co-organized academic events, and excelled in my research skills. I co-organized the SSHRC-funded workshop “Violent Confrontations, Discursive Constellations, and New Aspirations: Reflections on Pluralism, Diaspora and Transnationalism through the Lens of Youth Formations” (May 2012, York University). I co-edited a Special Issue for Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory (Vol. 9, Issue 3, 2013), in which I co-authored the essay "Violence, Memory, and the Dynamics of Transnational Youth Formations”. My book reviews have appeared in Canadian Journal of Sociology, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Memory Studies, and H-Memory. My latest article, “Coming to Terms with the Past in Turkey: Rewriting History through a Therapeutic Public Discourse,” has appeared in Cambridge University Press’s peer-reviewed International Journal of Middle East Studies in October 2015 (Vol. 47, No 4).

Ani Tatintsyan

My name is Ani Tatintsyan, I'm a writer living in Los Angeles, CA. I received my MA in Aesthetics and Politics from the California Institute of the Arts.

My current research revolves around concepts of memory and melancholy in the political context. My areas of interest include memory politics, cognitive capitalism, and digital culture. My Master’s thesis titled Melancholic Attachments, examined melancholy in the context of the Armenian Genocide, artistic representations, and digital culture.

PUBLIC LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS:

“Melancholic Attachments” at Columbia University  (New York, NY | December 2015) Presented at the 5th Annual Conference of the Historical Justice and Memory Network, “The Politics of Memory: Victimization, Violence, and Contested Narratives of the Past.”

“Melancholy Remains” at West Hollywood Public Library (West Hollywood, CA | Sep.  2015) Presentation focused on both my contribution to the book, In/Haemo/Form as well as my current research on melancholy in the context of the Armenian Genocide. The presentation aimed at answer the question; Does melancholy have political agency?

“Institutional Appropriation of Bodies: The Slave Ship, the Prison, the Museum”  (Valencia, CA | Nov. 2014) Guest-lecture at an undergraduate critical studies course at the California Institute of the Arts Lecture focused on economic and disciplinary techniques underlying issues of racial oppression and appropriation. Drawing on theories of bio-politics, discipline and punishment from French philosopher Michel Foucault Raising questions about the institutional spaces in which the body, especially the body of color, is appropriated.

PUBLISHED WORK:

My essay “Life After” was published in In/Haemo/Form, an anthology published by the Aesthetics and Politics program at the California Institute of the Arts. The essay examines an art exhibition, LIFE:100, and its role in maintaining a ‘melancholic’ relationship to loss and the ways in which this relationship with the past contributes as a political act.

Waged Jafer

I am currently a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program (University of British Columbia). My doctoral research focuses on Politics of Victimhood and Identity Politics—the focus of my research is the identities of persecuted religious minorities and how those identities shift when they immigrate to Canada after experiencing persecution in their homelands due to their religious affiliation. I completed my Masters in Conflict Studies from University of Ottawa with focus on inter- religious conflicts and a B.A in English Literature and a minor in Religious Studies.