The Armenian Studies Program Fall 2019 Lecture Series presents a talk by Ayşenur Korkmaz titled "'No Place Like Home': Ergir and the Ex-Ottoman Armenians in Soviet Armenia" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, in the Alice Peters Audotirum at the University Business Center.

This talk explores spatial attachments among the ex-Ottoman Armenians who survived the Armenian genocide and settled in their "new homeland," Soviet Armenia. It addresses the question of how the refugees dealt with loss and displacement and reflected on their former hometowns, referred to as "Ergir," a spatial construct denoting a symbolic "Armenian homeland" or a "local homeland" in Anatolia.

Korkmaz is a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Amsterdam, European Studies. She earned her master’s degree at Central European University, Nationalism Studies with honors. Her main areas of interest are the late Ottoman Empire, Soviet Armenia, as well as anthropological concepts of homeland, sacralization and materiality.

She has published several articles on the Hamidian Massacres, the lives of Ottoman Armenian intellectuals in the nineteenth century and the Armenian genocide. Korkmaz’s current doctoral research explores the post-genocide articulations of the Armenian homeland (Ergir) through materiality and rituals.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Free parking, with a permit, is available in Lot P6 or P5. Free parking codes are available through the Armenian Studies Program.

For more information, contact the Armenian Studies Program at 559.278.2669, visit www.fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies or Facebook @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState.