Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
feature of social and
cultural life at CMC

 

Coming "Home": Documenting 100 years of Displacement of Syrian-Armenians

Wed, February 7, 2018
Lunch Program
Anoush Baghdassarian '17

Over half of the Armenian population in Syria fled the Syrian Civil War, leaving their strong communities in danger of being lost to history. This displacement uprooted people and changed the communities they called home, but it did not change the home they found in their communities. Anoush Baghdassarian ’17 (with her Pomona colleague Ani Schug) spent summer 2017 in Armenia collecting testimonies from 81 Syrian-Armenians refugees who have found sanctuary in their ancestral Armenia. Along with sharing some narratives, she will discuss the importance of testimony collection in preserving the history of a displaced people.

Anoush Baghdassarian is a 2017 CMC graduate who dual majored in psychology and Spanish with a sequence in Holocaust and human rights studies. While at CMC, she made the most of the opportunities at the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights, working with asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking, holocaust survivors, and scholars on genocide and crimes against humanity. She was invited to international conferences like Poland's Model International Criminal Court, and presented her research at UCLA's Undergraduate Colloquium in Armenian Studies. With the help of the Mgrublian Center, Anoush has interned at various human rights organizations throughout her undergraduate career including the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.

In addition to these experiences, Anoush is a published author of a historical fiction play about the Armenian Genocide entitled FOUND which has been presented at book events in California, New York, Uruguay, and Argentina, as well as has been produced for stage productions in New York and California (including at the Athenaeum). She has also written a play in Spanish about Argentina's last military dictatorship, and is in the beginning stages of writing a play about the experience of Syrian-Armenians as her Action Project for the Humanity in Action fellowship based on the testimonies she collected this summer through a Davis Projects for Peace Grant.  

Next month, Anoush will return to Armenia to intern with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and continue to document the testimonies of Syrian-Armenian refugees. With the goal of working on international cases of genocide, forced migration, and crimes against humanity, Anoush plans to continue her education. She will pursue a Masters in Human Rights Studies in September of 2018 before attending law school the following year to study human rights law. 

Anoush is extremely humbled to have received this unique and invaluable opportunity to return to speak at the Athenaeum and give back to the institution that helped to shape her interests and make this research possible. 

Anoush's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at CMC.

View Video: YouTube with Anoush Baghdassarian '17

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
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Claremont, CA 91711

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