Zoom Webinar
My talk traces the routes of disappearance, dispersal and ruination of indigenous lives, people, and knowledge within the context of the Armenian genocide relying on a biographical approach that reconstructs the life and work of Johannes Jakob Manissadjian (1862-1942). Born into a missionary family in central Anatolia, Manissadjian received his education in American Protestant institutions and obtained his bachelor's degree from the Central Turkey College in Aintab in 1883. He went to Germany in 1886 for further studies and returned after a few years to serve his community and country. Manissadjian's teaching career in Marsovan from 1890 to 1915 was productive and remarkable, marked by the founding of a meteorological station and a natural history museum with over 7,000 specimens. The Armenian genocide of 1915 upended his personal and scientific life. Drawing on material from numerous and scattered Ottoman, German, and American archives, / demonstrate the potential of microhistorical methods to examine the processes and structures of mass violence against Ottoman Armenians during the fall of the empire, as well as to foreground the agency and subjectivity of genocide survivors. Focusing on Manissadjian's post-genocide scholarly (dis)engagements, particularly two archival interventions, I highlight his interest in preserving a wealth of knowledge that was at risk of being debris.
Sponsor(s): The Promise Armenian Institute, Richard Hovannisian Chair of Modern Armenian History at UCLA
