Conferences

After a long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ARC’s postponed multidisciplinary international academic conference on “The Soviet Experience in Armenia and Its Legacy” was held on October 28-30, 2022. 

The conference sought to analyze the impact of seventy years of Soviet rule in Armenia between 1920 and 1991. It explored the trajectory of Soviet Armenian society, including but not restricted to critical developments and turning points in politics, the economy, and culture.

“Armenians and the Cold War: An International Conference,” April 1-3, 2016.

The international conference on “Armenians and the Cold War” was organized on the occasion of the ARC’s 30th anniversary. The Conference brought together about two dozen scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Armenia, Argentina, and Brazil. 

The global Cold War from around 1945 to 1991 affected the Armenians, not only in Soviet Armenia but also in the many Armenian communities scattered across the world. Something resembling a cold war had already surfaced in the Armenian Diaspora not long after the establishment of Soviet rule in Armenia in late 1920. Political factions opposing Communism and those expressing readiness to cooperate with the Soviet Armenian government had developed in the Armenian Diaspora as early as the 1920s. Their rivalry was accentuated after the end of World War II, and disagreements on Soviet Armenia remained among Armenians living in the diaspora until the disintegration of the USSR. 

Papers presented at the conference addressed many other questions and themes related to the Cold War period. For the program, panels, participants, and abstracts consult the conference booklet Armenians and the Cold War.

“Armenia and Its Diaspora: Institutional Linkages and Cross Border Movements,” October 15-16, 2010.

The conference “Armenia and its Diaspora: institutional Linkages and Cross Border Movements” was organized on the occasion of the ARC’s 25th anniversary. The conference brought together panelists from the USA, Armenia, France and Switzerland.  

Papers presented in the Conference explored in some depth a number of specific episodes in the history of Armenia-Diaspora relations throughout the 20th century and in the early 21st century. The selected episodes fell into two categories: choices made by Diasporan individuals, especially when they decided to cross international borders by either migrating to the homeland, and policies followed by state institutions in the homeland or organizations in the Diaspora as they dealt with their counterparts in different epochs and political circumstances.  

The conference booklet was published and distributed to panelists, participants, and attendees.