This talk explores the role of Rev. Hovhannes Eskijian and his associates in the underground network of humanitarians, missionaries, and diplomats who resisted the destruction of the Armenian people during World War I. Piecing together hundreds of accounts, official documents, and missionary records—including Eskijian’s and his associates’ family archives—Mouradian presents a social history of genocide and resistance in Ottoman Syria. He argues that despite the violent and systematic mechanisms of control and destruction in the cities, concentration camps, and massacre sites in this region, the genocide of the Armenians did not progress unhindered—unarmed resistance proved an important factor in saving lives and laying the groundwork for postwar rebuilding.
This endowed lectureship is named in honor of the Kerr family, whose progenitors include Professor Stanley and Elsa Reckman Kerr, who helped to rescue and provide exemplary humanitarian care for survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23. The annual Kerr Family Lectureship is designed to amplify the stories of heroes and heroines who dedicated themselves to saving and supporting victims and survivors of violence and mass atrocities in times of crisis.
Khatchig Mouradian is a lecturer in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University, and the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress. He also serves as Co-Principal Investigator of the project on Armenian Genocide Denial at the NYU Global Institute for Advanced Study. Mouradian is the author of the award-winning monograph The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915-1918 (2021). He is also the co-editor of After the Ottomans: Genocide’s Long Shadow and Armenian Resilience (2023) and The I.B.Tauris Handbook of the Late Ottoman Empire: History and Legacy (forthcoming in 2025).
Antranik Dakessian is the editor-in-chief of the Haigazian Armenological Review. He teaches history of the Lebanese Armenian community, the Armenian communities of the Middle East, Armenian Socio-political thought and Medieval Armenian art at Haigazian University. Has published a number papers on microhistories of the Armenian communities and subgroups in the Middle East Arab states. Has authored books on Vahan Bedelian and Parsegh Ganachian and a book on the integration of the Armenian community in the Lebanese polity.
Dr. Dakessian is the Director of the Armenian Diaspora Research Center. Has organized conferences on Armenia-Diaspora relations, trans-nationalism, identity as well as conferences on Armenians of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt-Sudan-Ethiopia, Cyprus-Greece, the Arab Gulf States, which have been published in separate volumes. He has edited and published eyewitness accounts of Armenian Genocide survivors.
His academic interests revolve around Diaspora communities and their socio-economic and political output, identity, integration, sustainability, culture and crafts, democracy and human rights.
This event will take place at the Mong Learning Center (Engineering VI Building)
Visitor parking available at UCLA Parking Structure 8.
- Park on the roof of Parking Structure 8
- Pay for parking at a Paystation
- Take the stairs or the elevator to Level 1/Westwood Plaza
- Cross the street diagonally, then turn slightly left, continuing north, past the bus stop
- Engineering VI will be on your right as you walk north on Westwood Plaza
Please note: This event will be photographed and recorded for documentation and distribution. All audience members agree to the possibility of appearing in these photographs and recordings by virtue of attending the event or participating in the event.
Sponsor(s): The Promise Armenian Institute, Center for Near Eastern Studies, Ararat-Eskijian Museum, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), Haigazian University