PARAMUS, N.J.—The Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society New Jersey chapter recently announced that it will host a six-week course entitled “Love in the time of Genocide: Letters, poems, and memoirs from the Great Crime, 1915-1923,” taught by Dr. Khatchig Mouradian.
‘Love in the time of Genocide: Letters, poems, and memoirs from the Great Crime, 1915-1923’
In the course, Mouradian explores the theme of romantic love during the Armenian Genocide through the writing of a number of survivors of the crime. The literature under study includes letters, poetry, diaries, and memoirs exploring the role romantic love played in the lives of deportees during and in the immediate aftermath of the Great Crime.
Mouradian argues that Armenian deportees often found in romantic love a sense of normalcy in a world gone mad, and a form of resistance against the Ottoman Turkish effort to break apart, destroy, and annihilate.
The instructor will provide English translations for readings that are in Armenian or Armeno-Turkish.
Mouradian is the former editor of the Armenian Weekly and a visiting professor at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University. He has taught courses on imperialism, mass violence, human rights, concentration camps, urban space and conflict in the Middle East, and collective memory at Rutgers University, Worcester State University, and California State University-Fresno. He is the author of several articles and book chapters.
The course will be taking place every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. from March 28 to May 9 (no class on April 18), at St. Matthews Church (167 Spring Valley Road, Paramus, N.J.)
The course fee is $100. To register, contact Ani at 201-233-0208.