Dr. Vahram Shemmassian, director of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge, will discuss “On the Trail of My Musa Dagh Ancestry” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, in the Alice Peters Auditorium, Room 191 (Peters Business Building) at Fresno State. The presentation is part of the Fall Lecture Series of the Armenian Studies Program, with financial support from the Leon S. Peters Foundation. This presentation recounts Shemmassian’s rendezvous with the history of Armenian Musa Dagh, his ancestors’ birthplace, that resulted in his doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Los Angeles and the publication of a new book: “The Musa Dagh Armenians: A Socioeconomic and Cultural History, 1919-1939.” He has conducted extensive research in about 40 archives in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Armenia, gathering data on such areas of interest as the Armenians of Musa Dagh and Armenian Genocide survivors in the Middle East at the end of World War I. Free parking is available in Fresno State lots P5 and P6, near the University Business Center. INFO: the Armenian Studies Program at 559.278.2669 or www.fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.
