“Surviving Borders: Armenian Lives in the Shadow of Genocide”

Summary: This lecture examines the experiences of Armenian communities in the Middle East during the first half of the 20th century, focusing on the profound effects of displacement, genocide, and nation-state formation. Post-World War I international diplomacy played a pivotal role in dividing Armenian lives between scattered diaspora communities and those who remained as Turkish citizens, often marginalized within the very state that had sought their erasure. Exploring the concept of "denativization," the talk traces how Armenian identities were renegotiated across borders, revealing the enduring legacies of survival and adaptation in the shadow of genocide and displacement.

Bio: Hakem A. Al-Rustom is the Alex Manoogian Professor of Modern Armenian History, assistant professor of history and of anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is author of Enduring Erasures: Afterlives of the Armenian Genocide (forthcoming, July 2025) and the coeditor of Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation (2010).