The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI) will host the twelfth conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) with the theme “The Comparative Analysis of the 20th Century Genocides”, July 8-12, 2015.

Holding this prestigious conference in Yerevan will be unprecedented both in terms of the number of participants and the high academic level, and also in the perspective of the centenary of the Armenian Genocide.

Genocide scholars and hundreds of academicians from the related fields from around the world will participate in the conference “The Comparative Analysis of the 20th Century Genocides”.

The conference to be held in July 2015 is dedicated to the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, as well as to the 70th anniversary of the World War II and the Holocaust.

The head of the local organizing committee of the conference, the director of AGMI Hayk Demoyan noted:“This conference is going to be an exceptional event in the field of Armenology and particularly in the field of Armenian genocide studies. Hundreds of prominent experts and young scholars will arrive in Armenia, whose participation in the IAGS twelfth conference will be a good opportunity to have more profound perceptions of the Armenian Genocide and its consequences, as well as to get well acquainted with Armenia and the Armenian culture”.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1997 and received the prize of RA president for its significant contribution on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 2010.

IAGS is the leading and the largest organization of scholars studying genocide and crimes against humanity. The association was founded in 1994 by famous scholars Israel Charny, Helen Fein, Robert Melson, Roger Smith and today it unites more than 500 scholars from around the world. The association aims at investigating and teaching the causes of genocides in the world in order to prevent the genocides in the future. The Armenian Genocide has always been in the focus of genocide studies by the members of IAGS.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute welcome the submission of papers, particularly on the following topics:



• “Genocide” – a new definition of an old crime
• Conceptual dimensions of the UN Convention: new approaches
• Armenian Genocide: A template for further genocides
• The genocides of the Greeks, the Assyrians and the Yezidis in the Ottoman Empire
• Comparative Genocide Research: the Holocaust, genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Rwanda, Darfur and Latin America
• The genocidal process: early warning signs, prediction and prevention
• The dynamics, causes and consequences of genocide
• Punishing genocidal crimes: the issue of reparations and the limited capacity of international justice
• Genocide, collective memory, narrative and public commemorations
• Genocide education as a step towards prevention
• Genocide denial
• New directions in comparative genocide research: advances, problems and possibilities for future research

Besides individual papers and panels, the organizers encourage other modes of presentation, including workshops, roundtable discussion, film screenings, book presentations, cultural media and artistic works/readings.

The conference will be marked with a visit to the newly prepared exhibition of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute. During the conference participants will be able to devote one day to an optional excursion to Gyumri, the city where the world largest orphanages were established by the American Near East Relief after the Armenian Genocide and to visit the Memorial of Musa Dagh Resistance in nearby Yerevan.

Attendance at the conference is open to all interested professionals and students, but for the presentation at the conference one is required to be a member of IAGS. For information on membership please see www.genocidescholars.org/membership

The applications for the participation in the conference will be accepted by January 23, 2015. The application should include an email address, a title, an abstract (250 words maximum in English) and a short biographical sketch of 3-4 sentences (please no CVs) that should be sent to the organizational committee at: iags2015yerevan@gmail.com

The quality and relevance of the applications will be assessed by the Conference Evaluation Committee. The Organizational Committee will cover the accommodation of selected participants from developing countries, whose institutions cannot pay their travel and other expenses and others with special circumstances. Further announcements will give information on how to apply for each of these benefits.


Organizational Committee