PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Avenue
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-489-1610
Fax: 617-484-1759
MONUMENTS AND POST-SOVIET ARMENIAN
IDENTITY TO BE EXAMINED IN PAIR OF LECTURES
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will
present an illustrated lecture by Dr. Levon Abrahamian entitled
"Fighting with Memory and Monuments: Re-Shaping Post Soviet Armenian
Identity" on Thursday, April 3, at 8:00 p.m., at the NAASR Center, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA. On April 10, NAASR and the Armenian
Historical Association of Rhode Island will present the same lecture in
Providence, RI, at 7:30 p.m. at the Armenian Euphrates Evangelical
Church, 13 Franklin St., Providence, RI, 02903.
Dr. Abrahamian is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of Near
Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los
Angeles. He is the Head of the Department of Contemporary
Anthropological Studies at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia. He is the author of Armenian
Identity in a Changing World and the co-editor of Armenian Folk Arts,
Culture, and Identity, and has authored other books and many articles in
Armenian and English.
Reevaluation of Soviet-Era Idols
Beginning in the years of perestroika, the stormy process of
reevaluating traditional Soviet key events, heroes, and "gods" was
started in Armenia. By the end of perestroika and especially in the
beginning of the post-communist era, much attention was focused on the
monuments that celebrated these Soviet luminaries and landmark events.
Abrahamian will discuss the fight over these monuments and their
symbolism in post-Soviet Armenia with attention to the broader context
of other post-Soviet countries.
Naturally, the main focus of the monument-fighters was the great
"ancestors" of the Soviet regime. Monuments of Stalin had already been
removed after his death. After Stalin, Lenin remained the main focus of
the monument-fighters’ revolutionary rage. During the anti-monument
movement, sometimes a kind of reinterpretation of a monument instead of
its destruction took place, and Abrahamian will present examples.
The fight over memory and monuments also involves the process of new
remembering and new monument raising. In general, the talk will give an
outline of the landscape of monuments in Yerevan and the nature of
memory discourse in late-Soviet and post-Soviet Armenia.
More information about the lecture is available by calling 617-489-1610,
faxing 617-484-1759, e-mailing [email protected], or writing to NAASR, 395
Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.