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Survivors: An Ethnographic Study of Armenian American Activism and Expression

King, Melissa Ruth · 2013

In Armenian American youth activism, the practice of memory of woundedness and genocide is conceived as a form of resistance tied to claiming a subjectivity as diasporan Armenians and as a US minority. Young activists position themselves in history as remnants and freedom fighters, demanding recognition of the Genocide in a struggle for justice that simultaneously demands their own recognition as survivors in a context of perceived denial. The activist tradition studied here tends toward anti-assimilationism and the display of woundedness as a means of obtaining perceptibility. Youth claim survivorship through diasporan institutions that structure commemorations, cultural events and political protests. The study rests on eighteen months of field research in the Los Angeles region.

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Published in
PhD dissertation, Anthropology, University of California, Riverside; eScholarship
Year
2013
Language
English

Citation

King, Melissa Ruth 2013. Survivors: An Ethnographic Study of Armenian American Activism and Expression. PhD dissertation, Anthropology, University of California, Riverside; eScholarship.

What this offers a reader

For students

An anthropologist watched our commemorations and activism up close. Worth reading, even where it stings.

For academics

Ethnographic study of recognition activism; based on eighteen months of fieldwork in Los Angeles.

For the community

How our own youth activism looks to a careful outside observer.

For a general reader

An ethnography of Armenian American youth activism and April 24 commemoration.

Topics

genocide recognitiondiaspora activismArmenian Americanscommemorationgenocide denialLos Angeles

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