Jehovah’s Witnesses and Armenian State During the Post-Soviet Period
Kaplan 365Drawing on the analysis of various newspaper articles, this presentation focuses on the evolution of the relationship between the Jehovah’ Witnesses and Armenian state during the post-Soviet period. Scholars have argued that Jehovah’s Witnesses’ rejection of blood transfusion, conspicuous intolerance to other churches and/or national symbols, and conscientious objection are the main source of tension...
THE LAST WATCHMAN OF CAIRO
Royce Hall 314 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, CA, United StatesAuthor Michael David Lukas will be reading from his second novel, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo. A multigenerational novel centered around Cairo’s Ibn Ezra Synagogue, the book knits together the disparate experiences of three different narrators—an eleventh century Muslim watchman, a pair of Victorian-era linguists, and a contemporary Comparative Literature graduate student—as each “discovers”...
“The Dig”
UCLA Glorya Kaufman Dance TheaterA Solo Play written & performed by Stacie Chaiken with live music by Yuval Ron The Dig seamlessly and beautifully weaves together the worlds of archaeology; science and biochemistry; Biblical text; Jewish history and identity; the history/story of the land of Israel Palestine; and more. In The Dig, playwright and actor Stacie Chaiken plays Sally Jenkins,...
Learning Armenian in a Diasporic Context: Reflections on Second Dialect Acquisition
Kaplan 365As the emergent epicenter of the Armenian diaspora, Los Angeles nourishes a dynamic source of heritage speakers and learners, exhibiting robust enrollment in Armenian day schools and language classes at the college level. This uniquely heterogeneous community features great diversity in terms of country of origin, wave of immigration, socioeconomic status, and linguistic standard or...
Overview of 21st Century Armenian Prose
Kaplan 365Dr. Anahid Aramouni Keshishian is Lecturer in Eastern Armenian in the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. She received her BA from both Yerevan State University and the University of Laverne, while gaining her Ph.D from the Institute of Literature in Yerevan. Her dissertation on American-Armenian author Hagop Karapents was published by the...
ON THE FRINGES OF SCIENTIFIC RESPECTABILITY: Archaeoastronomy from Pyramids and Petroglyphs to Henges and Horsa
Kaplan 365All cultures seem to have creation myths (ours is called the Big Bang or Inflation) and to have looked to the stars for their own purposes. Modern astronomers strive to understand objects and processes that frequently have time scales much longer than individual lives. The train of thought that archaeologiss/anthropologists and astronomers might help each...
Pourdavoud Center Lecture Series: Dr. Antigoni Zournatzi
Royce 306Mapping Ancient Cultural Encounters: Greeks in Iran ca. 550 BC – ca. AD 650: Aims, Prospects, and Case Studies Greco-Iranian cultural interactions within the territory of the modern state of Iran are attested since the Achaemenid period, although they considerably intensify during the Alexandrine and Seleucid eras. A thorough investigation of these cultural exchanges necessitates...
Using Documents in the Study of Early Islam: A Brief Introduction
Kaplan 365Come hear papyrologist Dr. Naïm Vanthieghem discuss the use of documents, particularly papyri, in the field of Islamic Studies. This informal talk is designed with graduate students in mind and will include ample time for discussion, Q & A, and even trying your hand at deciphering documentary sources. Dr Vantheighem brings experience working directly on...
Multilingualism in Early Islamic Egypt: The View from Papyri
Kaplan 365After Arab armies conquered Egypt in the mid-seventh century, the country's linguistic landscape changed only gradually. Greek, preeminent for centuries as a language of high culture and governance, faded as Arabic advanced to fill these niches. Coptic, which until then had functioned largely as a vernacular, became in its turn a language of culture and...
Revolution, Democracy, Security
Bunche 6275Armen Grigoryan, Secretary of the Security Council in the Republic of Armenia, gained his BA in International Relations from Yerevan State University and MA in the same field from the American University of Armenia. Since then he has participated in various international educational projects inter aliain the USA, Finland, and Italy. Recently, he served concurrently...