Dr. Khatchig Mouradian of Clark University will begin his fall appointment as the 13th Henry K. Khanzadian Kazan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies at Fresno State and will give three free, public lectures about genocide and resilience.
The lectures will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Alice Peters Auditorium at the Peters Business Building (Room. 191). Free parking is available with a permit coupon code available through the program.
Mouradian’s first lecture, “Genocide and Humanitarian Resistance in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1917,” will be Tuesday, Sept. 20. An hors d’oeuvres reception at 6:30 p.m. in the University Business Center Gallery will precede his talk.
The second lecture, “Don’t Fall off the Earth: The Armenian Communities in China from the 1880s to 1950s,” will be Thursday, Oct. 20.
The third lecture, “The Tale of Two Midwives: The Notebooks of Siphora and Nuritza Shnorhokian of Aintab, 1890-1930,” will be Wednesday, Nov. 30.
Mouradian holds a Ph.D. in history from the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University and a graduate certificate in Conflict Resolution from UMass Boston. He is a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University, where he also serves as the coordinator of the Armenian Genocide Program.
In 2015-2016, Mouradian was a visiting assistant professor at the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University. Since 2014, Mouradian has taught courses on imperialism, mass violence, human rights, concentration camps, urban space and conflict in the Middle East and collective memory in the history and sociology departments at Rutgers and at Worcester State University.
Mouradian is the author of several articles and book chapters, including, most recently, “The Meskeneh Concentration Camp, 1915-1917: A Case Study of Power, Collaboration and Humanitarian Resistance During the Armenian Genocide” (Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies – Vol. 24, 2015); and “Genocide and Humanitarian Resistance in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1916,” (Études arméniennes contemporaines – Vol. 7, 2016).
For his first talk, Mouradian will present an illustrated lecture and multifaceted account of developments in Aleppo and across the network of concentration camps in Ras ul-Ain and along the banks of the Euphrates River from Meskeneh to Der Zor during the war, said Dr. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, coordinator of Fresno State’s Armenian Studies Program.
“The assault on, and the humanitarian resistance waged by Armenian deportees in Ottoman Syria during World War I provide insight into key aspects of the Armenian Genocide,” Der Mugrdechian said.
Drawing upon previously untapped primary sources as well as fresh insights from others, Mouradian explores the interactions between the local, regional and central authorities and the humanitarian resistance waged by a network of Armenians aided by locals and western missionaries.
“Positioning the war effort at the core of Ottoman policies toward deportees in Ottoman Syria, Dr. Mouradian discusses how and why a series of fateful decisions affecting hundreds of thousands of Armenian deportees — rolled out beginning in fall 1915 — culminated in a second wave of massacres in the Syrian desert in summer 1916, and how thousands of Armenians survived the carnage through the efforts of the humanitarian resistance network,” said Der Mugrdechian.
Free parking is available with a parking code in Fresno State lots P5 and P6, near the University Business Center off Woodrow Avenue between Shaw and Barstow (using the kiosks in the parking area to receive the permit).
For the parking code and more information about the lecture, contact the Armenian Studies Program at 559.278.2669 or visit www.fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.
