YEREVAN, Armenia — On June 29 and 30, the recently launched Center for Ethics in Public Affairs (ETICA), based at the American University of Armenia’s (AUA) Turpanjian Institute of Social Sciences, hosted its inaugural international conference on “National Identity in a Time of Crisis.” The two-day timely event engaged with the complex question of national identity in Armenia and beyond through presentations by over 60 Armenian and international scholars, including six keynote speakers, in the presence of nearly 200 attendees from Armenia.
ETICA, which was officially launched on May 22, is the result of a €2.5 million grant awarded to AUA from Horizon Europe’s highly coveted and prestigious European Research Area (ERA) Chair competitive funding. To date, Armenia is the first country in the South Caucasus to receive such ERA Chair grants. AUA’s receipt of this grant reflects the University’s ongoing efforts to expand its scholarly reach both within and beyond Armenia by diversifying its academic and programmatic offerings.
Co-funded by the European Union, the Global Institute for Advanced Study at New York University (NYU), and the Armenian Society of Fellows (ASOF), the conference program was designed by Professor Maria Baghramian, ERA Chair and head of ETICA; Dr. Paul Boghosian of NYU’s Global Institute for Advanced Study; Dr. Vatche Sahakian and Vahagn Vardanyan of ASOF; TISS Director Dr. Stephan Astourian, and Assistant Professor and deputy head of ETICA, Dr. Arshak Balayan.
The event was launched on Saturday night, June 28, with an opening reception at the State Philharmonia of Armenia, also known as the Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall, and was followed by a moving piano and voice recital by world renowned concert pianist Kirill Gerstein and soprano Ruzan Mantashyan, performing music by Debussy and Komitas from their award-winning CD, “Music in Time of War.”
On Sunday morning, conference attendees gathered at AUA to kick off the first full day of presentations. In her welcoming remarks, Provost Dr. Alina Gharabegian placed the ETICA conference within the context of broader national and cultural developments worldwide: “We convene at a critical juncture — as The Atlantic recently framed it, societies globally are locked in a struggle to define their ‘historical narrative and the meaning of belonging,’ and hence are on the verge of a ‘retreat into tribal lines.’ This crisis of identity is echoed elsewhere in analyses that portray our fractured decade as a time when resurgent nationalism, ideological polarization, mass displacement have forced a reckoning with what binds — and divides — us. Amid these shifts, we confront a question only humanistic inquiry can answer: What becomes of national identity when crisis becomes the norm?”
In turn, Professor Maria Baghramian, thanked the keynote speakers and presenters who had traveled to Armenia for this unique conference. Reiterating ETICA’s core mission, she said, “ETICA aims to create a welcoming space for free and open discussions around difficult ethical and social issues that face our country and region.”
Each day of the conference began with five parallel morning sessions, during which researchers presented a total of 48 peer reviewed papers on themes such as “National Identities Under Political Influence,” “Violence, Culture, and National Identity,” and “Identity in Time and Space,” among others. In the afternoon, following a lunch break, attendees gathered for keynote addresses. On Sunday, Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law at New York University, Dr. Anne-Marie Thiesse, senior researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Levon Abrahamian, head of the Department of Contemporary Anthropological Studies at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the Republic of Armenia (RA), delivered keynote addresses on what it is to be a people, the paradoxes inherent in the concept of national identity, and the transformations of the idea of national identity in the post-Soviet Armenia.
On Monday, in addition to the parallel sessions, conference attendees had the opportunity to attend a special invited panel organized by the SIREH Center for the Study, Preservation and Enhancement of Armenian Cultural Heritage. The panelists, which included Director of Research at the Getty Conservation Institute Tim Whalen, discussed the nuanced politics of the preservation of cultural heritage in a time of crisis, offering actionable strategies drawn from their experiences in countries ranging from the United States to Syria.
The afternoon keynote session opened with an address by RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who presented his ideology of the “Real Armenia,” in keeping with the conference’s aim of examining opposing views to the contested topic of national identity. Following the Prime Minister’s speech, Dr. Aghassi Tadevosyan, senior researcher at the RA NAS Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Dr. Gina Gustavsson, associate professor at Uppsala University, and Dr. David Miller, professor of political theory at Oxford University, took the stage to speak on the role of crises in shaping national identity, liberal nationalism, and the positive and negative features of nationalism.
Keynote Addresses
Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, “What is a People?”
Dr. Anne-Marie Thiesse, “National Identity: A Political and Cultural Concept Fraught With Paradoxes”
Dr. Gina Gustavsson, “Liberal Nationalism in an Age of Accelerating Authoritarianism”
Dr. David Miller, “The Two Faces of Nationalism”
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.
Media Coverage
[Asbarez] AUA Hosts Inaugural ETICA Conference on ‘National Identity in a Time of Crisis’
[MassisPost] AUA Hosts Inaugural ETICA Conference on National Identity in a Time of Crisis
