In the first years of its independence, the Republic of Armenia, along with other post-Soviet countries, was viewed as a "country in transition" – a transition from the Soviet socio-economic model to a market economy and a Western-type democracy.
Later developments have shown that the direction of the transition is not so certain, and in the early 2000’s, some Western scholars questioned the validity of the "transition paradigm". In Armenia as well, that paradigm was kept as a convenient language for communication with the outside world; whereas, among local scholars, the traditional "nationalist" approach is wide-spread.
Meanwhile, it becomes increasingly evident that both "transitive" and "nationalist" discourses are not able to describe the socio-economic realities of today's Armenia and are oftenimitational.
There are, of course, interesting and realistic analyses produced in Armenia and in the Armenian-language, but they are scattered and lost in the overall "communication noise".
The international conference Armenia 2018: Realities and Perspectives and the parallel interactive internet platform serve the need of consolidating these scattered efforts and making them visible through a long and sustained program.
Only the consolidation of a new discourse in social sciences can rationally reflect the Armenian realities and form an intellectual atmosphere in Armenia, where the "quasi-western" and the "quasi-patriotic" languages will no longer be perceived as mutually exclusive "natural givens" but will have to put their arguments up for a rational debate with the alternative discourse.
Project Director: Ashot Voskanyan, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia, PhD (Dr. habil. in Philosophy)
Project Coordinator: Siranush Dvoyan, PhD in Philology
Organizer: Armenian Research Center in Humanities
With financial support of
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Partners:
PROGRAM
The Conference will take place at the American University of Armenia (40 Marshal Baghramyan Ave., Paramaz Avedisian Building)
June 22
9:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-10:40 /Manoogian Hall
Greetings
10:40-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:20 / Manoogian Hall
Plenary Session: Keynote Speeches
Ashot Voskanyan - From overcoming muteness to the new social contract
Simon Kordonsky – Estate-based social structure in post-Soviet Russia
12:20- 13:30 Lunch
13:30-15:50 / Manoogian Hall
Panel 1. Society in Change
Moderator: ASHOT VOSKANYAN
Session 1
Suren Zolian –On the models of description of the post-Soviet societies
Harutyun Marutyan – The main characteristics of the first and second Armenain Revolutions: preliminary observations
Vahram Soghomonian – The agenda of the Revolution
Zhanna Andreasyan –Social solidarity agenda
13:30-15:50 / Akian Art Gallery
Panel 2. Armenia - Diaspora
Moderator: KHACHIG TÖLÖLYAN
Khachig Tölölyan– Rethinking the Armenian trans-nation
Vahe Sahakyan – Diaspora, ethnicity, the concept of “Armenian trans-nation,” and some observations on Diaspora research methodologies
Antranig Dakessian – Republic of Armenia: a view from Lebanon
Syuzanna Barseghyan, Sona Nersisyan, Lusine Tanajyan - Homeland perception in the Diaspora
Nona Shahnazarian– Urbanites in rural space: electoral frauds in Masis district
Eviya Hovhannisyan – Armenian communities of Russia in the context of the colonial policy
15:50-16:30 Coffee Break
16:30-17:50 / Manoogian Hall
Panel 1. Society in Change
Moderator: ASHOT VOSKANYAN
Session 2
Stepan Danielyan –Pre-revolution moods vs post-revolution expectations
Anna Zhamakochyan, Arpy Manusyan –Armenia's civil society through the prism of the revolution
Artur Mkrtichyan –The concept of “neither war nor peace society” as a sociological model of post-Soviet Armenian society
Hamazasp Danielyan – The establishment of party system in Armenia: shall we try again?
16:30-17:50 / Akian Art Gallery
Panel 3. The changing Soviet․ history, philosophy, art
Moderator: SIRANUSH DVOYAN
Ruzanna Grigoryan - Tracing a leaflet: the unfinished trial of Sargis Kasyan
Ashot Grigoryan - Missak Khostikian and the establishment of Soviet-Armenian historiography of philosophy: the problem of David Anhaght
Irina Shakhnazaryan - The new station of “Armenian style” and the origins of Soviet-Armenian art
Nare Sahakyan - The first manifestations of conceptual art in newly independent Armenia: the beginning of post-Soviet condition
June 23
10:00-11:20 / Manoogian Hall
Plenary Session: Keynote Speeches
Manvel Sargsyan - Dynamics of the socio-political state of Armenia
Ronald Grigor Suny - The five cons of history: remembering (and learning from) the first republic of Armenia 100 years later
11:20-12:00 Coffee Break
12:00-14:20 / Manoogian Hall
Panel 4. Science and education
Moderator: SIRANUSH DVOYAN
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, Arevik Anapiosyan –The educational reform: looking from the outside and from within
Serob Khachatryan – The conceptual analysis of school reforms in Armenia
Atom Mkhitaryan – About enhancing the learning effectiveness and quality assurance in the third level of Higher Education
Souren Voskanian – Information technologies as science, technology and business: the role of government and unions in the development of information technologies
Ara Sanjian –The challenges of perceiving and presenting history through research and teaching: a part-insider’s observations from outside
Sona Balasanyan – The teacher, a woman: fused personal and contested professional biographies
12:00-14:20 / Akian Art Gallery
Panel 5. The economic and social structure of the society
Moderator: STEPAN DANIELYAN
Hrant Mikaelyan – The economy of the Armenian “velvet revolution”
Yulia Antonyan – The end of “the oligarchs?” Pre and post-revolutionary realities and the Armenian economic and political elites
Armen Ghazaryan –Archaism in the political system of Armenia
Yuliana Melkumyan – Middle class dynamics in contemporary Armenian society
Harutyun Vermishyan – The crisis of rurality in post-Soviet Armenia: a semiotic analysis of villagers’ experience
Hasmik Gevorgyan –The implication of oral history approach in the study of changing societies
14:20- 15:30 Lunch
15:30-17:50 / Manoogian Hall
Panel 6. Discourses
Moderator: STEPAN DANIELYAN
Naira Mkrtchyan – Between local experience and Western discursive practices: on some research strategies
Olga Molyarenko – Conceptual and methodological limitations of state optics
Vardan Jaloyan – The critical analysis of political communication and mass media discourses
Maria Zaslavskaya – The conceptual basis of the political discourse of contemporary public protests in Armenia: comparative discourse analysis
Ivan Fomin, Nikolai Silaev – Two faces of Armenian nationalism: cleavages and coalitions in the discourses on Sasna Tsrer
Aghasi Tadevosyan – The discourse of inequality and the problem of poverty reduction in Armenia
June 24
11:00-13:30 Yerevan Hall, Hotel IBIS (Northern Ave. 5/1)
Final Sesssion:
Moderators’ Reports
Ashot Voskanyan, Khachig Tölölyan, Siranush Dvoyan, Stepan Danielyan
General overview
Razmik Panossian: Analytical summary: results and perspectives of further research
Discussion
Abstracts here
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