Jennifer Manoukian, UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History (Center for Armenian Studies), University of California, Irvine, will visit the Berkeley campus in September.
University of California, Irvine, History, Post-Doc
On Wednesday, September 11th, Manoukian will give her talk at the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Lecture and Discussion (254 Social Sciences Building)
Forbidden Attraction: Ottoman Armenians and the Turkish Language in the Age of Nationalism
“This presentation excavates the varied attitudes toward Turkish among Ottoman Armenians in the nineteenth century. It seeks to correct a fundamental misunderstanding about the relationship between Ottoman Armenians and the Turkish language, to reframe Ottoman Armenians as agents in their use of Turkish, and to expose Turkish as something far more than a “language of the oppressor” for many Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The presentation begins by offering an overview of Ottoman Armenian Turcophonia. It examines three language attitudes that led bilingual Ottoman Armenian men in Istanbul to choose Turkish over Armenian in specific social contexts (source: https://events.berkeley.edu/melc/event/262339-forbidden-attraction-ottoman-armenians-and-the)
The event has been sponsored by the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley, and the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.