Dinner and discussion at Denver Church part of

During the discussion, community members asked the scholars questions. (Photo by Headway from Unsplash)

A dinner reception and panel discussion at the First Baptist Church was held by the Armenians of Colorado, Inc. (AOC) for the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) and other academics from related areas.

This was during the Middle East Studies Association's (MESA) 56th annual meeting.

Dinner in Gratitude of the Academics

According to AOC Board President Byuzand Yeremyan, their community was privileged to welcome and hear from Armenian and non-Armenian experts throughout the USA.

For them, it is vital for the community, especially their youth, to learn from and connect with professors of Armenian Studies and allied subjects.

This is especially in the wake of the 2020 Artsakh War.

Yeremyan thanked event sponsors House of Bread, Kalita Grill, and the Sergoyan family.

Following that, Simon Maghakyan of SAS and AOC read a speech on behalf of SAS president Christina Maranci.

Maranci's statement read that SAS is thrilled and honored to host students via Armenians of Colorado's kind hospitality.

That said, they expressed their sincere gratitude to every academic who contributed to the field of Armenian studies and thanked the AOC team, led by Mr. Yeremyan, for organizing the event.

After dinner, the researchers then presented themselves and their current studies during a panel discussion that Maghakyan led.

Panel Discussion

The following participated in the dinner reception and panel discussion:

Gregory Aftandilian from American University, Alda Benjamen from the University of California, Berkeley, Carel Bertram from San Francisco State University, Aslihan Günhan from Cornell University, Candace Lukasik from Mississippi State University, Stephennie Mulder from the University of Texas at Austin, Nareg Seferian from Virginia Tech, Thomas Simsarian Dolan from Emory University, and Heghnar Watenpaugh from University of California, Davis.

During the discussion, community members asked the scholars questions.

Jirair Christianian, a longtime SAS and AOC member, questioned if scholarly collaboration between Armenian and Turkish researchers had been damaged by the 2020 Artsakh War.

In their comments, panelists Watenpaugh and Günhan stated that the partnership had remained much the same in practice.

This is despite some early reluctance to perform field research just after the war.

Watenpaugh lamented the lack of academic exchange between Armenian and Azerbaijani experts and said that the days of widespread genocide denial in academia are long gone.

Meanwhile, Simsarian Dolan provided more information on his investigation of Armenian prominence in the US in response to a query posed by AOC member Yeva Aleksanyan.

The scholar noted that while Armenian representation has occasionally been overly prominent in the US, it is typically absent or caricatured.

This is the case in modern Hollywood portrayals of Armenians as either extremely wealthy celebrities like the Kardashians or members of organized crime.

Another question from a youth audience sought clarity on attempts to reach out to Armenian students.

The panel's replies to this query about the function of scholarship in society offered insights into various academics' experiences and research initiatives.

New books were also discussed throughout the panel discussions.

This included Bertram's "A House in the Homeland," a compelling investigation of the emotional journeys taken to reclaim memory and regain stolen pasts.