Recognizing the Armenian Genocide

April 25, 2022

In recognition of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24, the John Brademas Center of New York University hosted a webinar to commemorate and discuss the Armenian Genocide. Considering the vision of the John Brademas Center and its namesake, this event focused on the Armenian Genocide in light of the U.S. recognition of the Genocide in 2019, the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020, and the Genocide’s historical relevance to the ongoing global conflicts today.

Featured speakers from various backgrounds included Artyom Tonoyan, Ph.D., Editor, Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press, Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, Democracy of the Arab World Now (DAWN), and Paul Boghossian, Ph.D., Department Chair; Silver Professor; Professor of Philosophy, NYU Arts & Science who shared their knowledge and expertise on these issues. Brademas Center Intern Vazgen Gasparyan served as interlocutor for the conversation. This discussion highlighted the significance of the Armenian Genocide and its continued pertinence more than one hundred years later.

This program was open to everyone and registration was required in order to receive the Zoom log-in details. This program was recorded.

YOUTUBE MEDIA

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Paul Boghossian

Vazgen Gasparyan

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan

Sarah Leah Whitson

Paul Boghossian, Ph.D., Department Chair; Silver Professor; Professor of Philosophy

I am Silver Professor of Philosophy at NYU's Philosophy Department, and Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Birmingham in the UK. I am the director of the New York Institute of Philosophy and the Director of NYU's Global Institute for Advanced Study. I was Chair of Philosophy from 1994-2004.

My research interests are primarily in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.

I have written on a variety of topics, including color, rule-following, eliminativism, naturalism, self-knowledge, a priori knowledge, analytic truth, realism, relativism, the aesthetics of music and the concept of genocide.

I have held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Magdalen College (Oxford), the School of Advanced Study (University of London), and the Australian National University (Canberra). I have been a Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a Fulbright Senior Specialist and am a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities.

I have also taught at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and at Princeton.

I served on the Global Citizenship Commission headed by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and currently on the University of London's School of Advanced Study Strategic Advisory Board.

Vazgen Gasparyan, NYU Brademas Center Intern; Sophomore, NYU Shanghai

Vazgen Gasparyan is a sophomore at New York University Shanghai, majoring in Political Science. He was born and raised in Armenia where he pursued education until the age of 15. Onwards he moved to Israel and graduated from the Givat Haviva International School with the International Baccalaureate diploma. Currently, he is studying away at NYU Washington DC where he interns at the John Brademas Center at New York University.

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan, Ph.D., Editor, Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press

Dr. Artyom Tonoyan was born and grew up in Gyumri, Armenia and now makes his home in Minneapolis, USA, where he was a research associate at the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2015-2021). A sociologist by training, his research focuses on the intersection of religion and nationalism in Russia and the South Caucasus. His articles have appeared in Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Society, and Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, among others. He has previously collaborated with RAND Corporation and has been a frequent commentator on the BBC, Deutsche Welle, France 24, and other outlets. Presently, he is guest-editing the Journal of Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press) for a forthcoming symposium on religion and law in Russia. Dr. Tonoyan is the editor of the recent volume Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press. He is also working on a book charting the social, historical, and religious backgrounds of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He received his Ph.D. from Baylor University, where he held a lectureship at the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and the Department of Political Science (2006-2012).

Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, DAWN

Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of DAWN. Previously, she served as executive director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa Division from 2004 – 2020, overseeing the work of the division in 19 countries, with staff located in 10 countries.

Whitson has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, accountability, legal reform, migrant workers, and human rights. She has published widely on human rights and foreign policy in the Middle East in international and regional media, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN.

She appears regularly on Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. Previously, Whitson worked in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School. Whitson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the boards of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, Artistic Freedom Initiative, Freedom Forward, ALQST for Human Rights, and Sinai Foundation for Human Rights. She speaks Armenian and Arabic.