Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship records, 1998-2011

Summary

Creator:

Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship.

Abstract:

Workshop organized by University of Michigan faculty that investigates the causes, circumstances, and consequences of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Records detail the activities of the Workshop, including administrative functions and papers, materials from the Workshops themselves, and Workshop projects. Also included are materials related to the scope and topic of the Workshops.

Extent:

3 linear feet
26 GB (online)

Language:

English
French
Ottoman Turkish
Turkish
Armenian

Call Number:

2012175 Bimu 2

Authors:

Finding aid created by Alicia Kildau, 2012

Background

Scope and Content:

The Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship (WATS) consists of records and related material from the WATS archives. The records are divided into five series: Administrative, Workshops, WATS Projects, and Related Materials. The collection was organized by Nora Nercessian prior to being presented to the Bentley Historical Library. The arrangement and description done by Nercessian has largely been retained.

Biographical / Historical:

The Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship (WATS) is an ongoing effort on the part of a number of scholars, Armenian, Turkish and others, to investigate the causes, circumstances and consequences of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The Workshop was conceived of and planned by University of Michigan professors Fatma Müge Göçek, Stephanie Platz, Kenneth Church, Kevork Bardakjian and Ronald Suny. In later years the organizing committee consisted of University of Michigan professors Müge Göçek, Suny, and Gerard Libaridian. The three transferred leadership of the Workshop to a new team of scholars in 2011.

Between 2000 and 2011, members of the Workshop met eight times in the United States and Europe to discuss, present papers, and establish a shared historical record and rough consensus on interpretation of the tragedies of the last years of the Ottoman Empire. The University of Michigan hosted the second workshop in 2002, and in 2011 the Armenian Studies Program co-sponsored the eighth workshop in Amsterdam.

The Middle East Studies Association recognized Drs. Müge Göçek and Suny and the scholars of the Workshop with the bestowing of the 2005 Academic Freedom Award, applauding their collective effort to "initiate and implement a project that overcame political divisions in society and in the academy," and noting that the Workshop "has provided a model that others addressing other conflicted histories can use in the years ahead."[1]

In 2011, a selection of the papers from the first seven workshops was published by Oxford University Press with the title A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire.

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1. http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/awards/mesa-academic-freedom.html

Acquisition Information:

Records were donated by the Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship (donor # 10661 ) in 2011.

Accruals:

No further additions to the records are expected.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Armenian massacres, 1915-1923.
Armenians -- Turkey -- History -- 20th century.
Genocide -- Turkey -- History -- 20th century.

Formats:

Digital file formats.

Names:

University of Michigan. Armenian Studies Program.
Workshop for American/Turkish Scholarship.

Places:

Turkey -- Ethnic relations -- History -- 20th century.