Peter Balakian, The Donald M. and Constance H. Reibar Professor the Humanities at Colgate University, will speak on "The Armenian Genocide and America's Response" at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 8, in the Fillius Events Barn. Balakian is the author of Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response, a 2003 New York Times Notable Book. The lecture is free and open to the public.
The Armenian massacres of the 1890s and 1915 at the hands of Ottoman Turks inspired a forgotten chapter in American history: a massive humanitarian movement that involved such figures as Clara Barton, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ezra Pound and lasted until the 1920s, when American oil interests in the Middle East steered the nation onto a different course. The saga reveals America's continuing struggle between international human rights and national self-interest.
Dr. Balakian has also written the prizewinning memoir Black Dog of Fate and Junetree: New and Selected Poems 1974-2000.
