International scholars will gather at Fresno State Oct. 17 and 18 to explore how personal memoirs are reshaping understanding of late Ottoman-Turkish history. The Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State will present an international conference titled “A New History – Writing on Late Ottoman-Turkish History: The Impact of Memoirs” on Friday, Oct. 17, at the Alice Peters Auditorium in the University Business Center and Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Smittcamp Alumni House. The conference is free and open to the public and will also be live-streamed on YouTube.
The conference begins with a reception from 6-7 p.m. Oct. 17, followed by keynote speaker Dr. Taner Akçam, director of the Armenian Genocide Research Project and the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA. Akçam will present his talk, “Beyond Fragmented Narratives, the Necessity of an ‘Integrated’ History: The Case of Malk Barşom and the Sheikh Said Rebellion.”
After the keynote, there will be a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Ümit Kurt with two featured presentations:
- “Reading Against the Grain of Memoirs and Diaries in Researching Late-Ottoman Kurdish and Armenian Histories,” by Dr. Janet Klein, associate professor of history at the University of Akron.
- “How Damned Defenders of Doomed Empires Become Heroes of the Nation,” by Dr. Michael Provence, professor of history at UC San Diego.
The second session begins at 10 a.m. Oct. 18, with two panels. The first, moderated by Barlow Der Mugrdechian, includes the following presentations:
- “Republic of Perpetrators: Talat Pasha’s Genocide Technocrat Mustafa Reşat Mimaroğlu,” by Dr. Ümit Kurt, University of Newcastle.
- “Local Politics, Intellectual Periphery and the End of the Empire: The Diaries of Yusuf Cemil Bey of Simav” by Dr. Yiğit Akın, Ohio State University.
- “The Father Figure in the Memoirs of Unionist Young Turks: Between Victimization, Betrayal and Regeneration,” by Dr. Duygu Tasalp, University of Louvain.
The second panel at 11:30 a.m. is moderated by Dr. David Zakarian and includes the following presentations:
- “Reassessing the Role of Ottoman Prison Convicts in the Armenian Genocide: Triangulating CUP Memoirs and Trial Proceedings with Ottoman Prison Statistics” by Dr. Kent Schull, Binghamton University.
- “Ahmed Riza and Selma Riza: An Ittihadist Glance on Women’s Rights,” by Dr. Merisa Sahin, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
- “An Examination of Mehmed Cavid Bey’s Newly Disclosed Diary for Insights into the Thoughts and Relationships of Unionist Leaders,” by Ekrem Yener, Bilgi University.
The conference is sponsored by the Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation, the Leon S. Peters Foundation, the Ralph Shapazian Memorial Fund and the Florence Hamparson Memorial Fund. Parking is free during the conference. For more information or accommodations, contact Barlow Der Mugrdechian at barlowd@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.4930.
