The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) has launched its latest in Education Innovation, the AGBU WebTalks online video series. AGBU WebTalks aims to capture and preserve the insights of engaging, dynamic thinkers from around the world, speaking on a wide range of Armenian topics.
With these short videos, AGBU WebTalks seeks to create a rich repository of knowledge and provide easy access to reliable information to meet the demands of an increasingly connected and visual world. This new platform will bring together expertise on Armenian topics in one easily accessible online resource.
“Every generation has its own approach to dealing with questions of identity and community. This multigenerational sharing and learning platform focuses on access, dissemination and preservation of the knowledge and insight of scholars, intellectuals, artists and many others on topics pertaining to the Armenian reality. The curated content allows individuals to navigate and explore their Armenianness through different perspectives shared by leading experts and opinion makers,” says Lena Sarkissian, AGBU Central Board Member and Director of Program Development at the Zoryan Institute’s International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights.
AGBU WebTalks debuts with five videos, produced in partnership with the Zoryan Institute, an international academic and scholarly center devoted to the documentation, study and dissemination of material related to issues of universal human rights, genocide, diasporas and Armenia. The videos were filmed during the “Responsibility 2015” international conference held in New York in March 2015 as part of the centennial commemorations of the Armenian Genocide and feature interviews with journalists Laure Marchand and Guillaume Perrier; human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson; historian Raymond Kévorkian; psychologist Israel Charny; and professor of history Richard Hovannisian. The themes of the aforementioned videos revolve around politics and the Armenian Genocide. The videos currently in production explore a diverse array of topics from art and architecture to classical, jazz and folk music.
“AGBU remains committed to enhancing education with innovation. With high quality, accessible content, we can not only ensure that Armenians have an archive of our history, but we can utilize these tools to further our mission by promoting Armenian subjects to be used in non-Armenian universities and schools. Now, with AGBU WebTalks, we can encourage professors of art, architecture, history and linguistics to incorporate the Armenian story into their syllabi, giving us a new platform for integrating our heritage in classrooms around the world,” added Ani Manoukian, AGBU Central Board Member.
AGBU WebTalks is part of a larger multimedia platform currently in development. Set to launch later this year, this online platform is a global access point offering innovative multimedia educational tools to foster and promote the learning of Armenian language, history and culture. “As part of this larger platform,” added Lena Sarkissian, “the WebTalks series provides a living repository of our distinguished minds as well as a living archive of our community activities. It is all about making connections-to knowledge, to leading experts, to one’s history, to one’s culture, to one’s identity, to being Armenian. Thus, AGBU provides one more opportunity to help forge the future of the Armenian world.”
To learn more about the AGBU WebTalks series, please visit www.agbuwebtalks.org.
