An international, academic conference called “Independence and Beyond: In Search of a New Armenian Diaspora after 1991,” organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western US Central Committee in collaboration with the University of Southern California Institute of Armenian Studies and the Armenian Review, will take place on April 27.
The one-day conference will take place at the Davidson Conference Center of the University of Southern California (USC) on Saturday, April 27, Asbarez reports.
Through its various presentations and discussions, the conference seeks to examine the impact of the independence of the Republic of Armenia and subsequent processes of nation-building there on various facets of Diaspora life, such as political ideologies and cultural narratives, linguistic and literary production, organizations and institutions, economic investment, remittances and affiliation, and hybrid identity formation.
The four thematic panels will feature leading scholars of Armenian, Diaspora, and Transnational Studies. Using their expertise in fields that range from Political Science and History to Literature and Journalism, the conference participants will work toward new frameworks and definitions in conceptualizing “Diaspora” in the Armenian context. Traditional paper presentations will be given in panels entitled, “Revisions of the Narrative of Return” and “Cultural Narratives and Language in and Evolving Diaspora,” while thematic conversations will be performed in discussion panels entitled, “New Definitions of Diaspora and Nationalism” and “Online Space and the Politics of Information Exchange.”
