America’s response to Genocide focus of MIT conference

Published: Wednesday March 10, 2010

MIT's best-known building. Courtesy photo

Cambridge, Mass. - On March 13, 2010, a one-day conference entitled "America's Response to the Armenian Genocide: From Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama," will take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Building 10 Room 250 from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

The conference is co-organized by Profs. Bedross Der Matossian (MIT) and Christopher Capozzola (MIT) and sponsored by the Faculty of History, the Center for International Studies (CIS), the Office of the Religious Affairs, and the Program on Human Rights & Justice (PHRJ).

The goal of the conference is to discuss and examine America's evolving policy toward the Armenian Genocide from the earliest years of World War I through the present day.

Although the Armenian Genocide is increasingly recognized as one of the foundational events of the twentieth century's painful history of political and ethnic violence, scholars who have examined its impact on United States foreign policy have concentrated almost exclusively on the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. But the legacy of the Armenian Genocide shaped U.S. policy through the twentieth century-as Americans confronted the meaning of "genocide" itself in the wake of World War II; as they confronted Armenia's pivotal place in the tense Cold War conflict; as Armenian Diaspora voices pressed Congress for recognition; and as geopolitics shifted again with the unification of Europe and U.S. intervention in the Middle East.

The one-day conference will bring together specialists in U.S. foreign relations, along with historians of ethnic conflict, genocide, and humanitarian intervention more generally. By bringing together experts on Armenia with those whose interests range somewhat further afield, the conference seeks to incorporate Armenian histories more fully into historical and social scientific disciplines and to foster dialogue between area studies specialists and U.S. historians.

Panels will discuss three major historical phases that shaped U.S. policy towards the Armenian Genocide: World War I, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War era. The latter two periods remain particularly understudied periods.

Full program follows:

The Faculty of History

The Center for International Studies

The Office of Religious Affairs

&

The Program on Human Rights & Justice

At MIT

Present

AMERICA'S RESPONSE TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE:

FROM WOODROW WILSON TO BARACK OBAMA

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Building 10-Room 250

10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

OPENING REMARKS

10:00 a.m.

Bedross Der Matossian (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

SESSION I: WOODROW WILSON AND THE ARMENIAN QUESTION

10:15 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Chair: David Engerman (Brandeis University)

Presenters:

Christopher Capozzola (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

"Woodrow Wilson Views the World-The World Views Woodrow Wilson"

Suzanne Moranian (Armenian International Women's Association)

"America's Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide: 1915-1927"

Gregory Aftandilian (Independent Scholar)

"Sympathy but Lack of Political Will: The Wilson Administration's Response to the Armenian Genocide and Its Aftermath"

SESSION II: THE COLD WAR AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Chair: David Ekbladh (Tufts University)

Presenters:

Richard G. Hovannisian (UCLA)

"From Turkey to the Soviet Union and Back"

Michael Bobelian (Author, Lawyer, and Journalist)

"The Truman Doctrine and America's Abandonment of Wilson's Principles"

Dennis R. Papazian (University of Michigan-Dearborn)

"Captive Nations as Pawns in the Cold War"

LUNCH BREAK

1:00pm-2:00pm

SESSION III: POST-COLD WAR PERIOD AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Chair: Jens Meierhenrich (Harvard University)

Presenters:
Simon Payaslian (Boston University)

"Genocide Recognition and the Political Economy of U.S. Foreign Policy"

Rouben Adalian (Armenian National Institute)

"Morality, Policy, and Diplomacy"

Marc Mamigonian (National Association for Armenian Studies and Research)

"Turkish-Armenian ‘Reconciliation' and the Road to Obama's ‘Medz Yeghern'"

COFFEE BREAK

3:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

Richard G. Hovannisian (UCLA)

"Humanitarianism versus Pragmatism: The United States and the Armenian Question"

CONCLUDING REMARKS

5:00 p.m.

Christopher Capozzola (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

** All sessions free and open to the public. No registration required. **

bedross@mit.edu