CfP | Second Annual Armenian International Congress on Oriental Studies – ACOS’20

The Department of Oriental Studies at the Yerevan State University (Armenia) invites you to the Second Annual Armenian International Congress on Oriental Studies – ACOS’20 – to be held on October 23-24, 2020 in Yerevan (Armenia). The First Congress was held in 2018 and around 70 scholars and researchers participated from more than 10 countries.

The Armenian International Congress on Oriental Studies is a bi-annual conference, which aims to provide a unique platform to discuss the most critical problems of contemporary studies in the broad field of Middle Eastern studies.

We invite proposals for papers and pre-arranged panels from graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars working on the Middle East from the ancient times to the present day, including but not limited to history, religious studies, geography, anthropology, political science, literary studies, linguistics, philosophy, art history, and media studies.

Theme. We also encourage submissions related to the theme of this year’s conference, Sovietization of the Caucasus and the Greater Middle East. Questions of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Consequences of the Sovietization of Southern Caucasus: demographic change, formation of identity, cultural transformations, new border identity.
  • Communism in the Middle East in 1920s: from internationalism to nationalism?
  • The perception of the sovietization of South Caucasus in the Middle East: a threat, an inspiration or ideological transformations?

Application. Please send submissions electronically to orientconference@ysu.am, no later than Friday, July 31, 2020. Please include each presenter’s name, institution, and position, as well as a separate file including a 250-word abstract with a tentative title. For pre-arranged panels, please send a single email with an overall panel description plus individual paper abstracts. The best abstracts will summarize the paper’s topic, its relationship and contribution to the existing scholarship and preliminary conclusions. Abstracts will be evaluated anonymously by the organizing committee; therefore, please do not include names or any identifying information in the abstract. Please feel free to email us for any inquiry at the above address. Accepted abstracts will be announced by August 17, 2020. Accepted papers should be sent by September 25, 2020.

Best papers will be published in the special issue of the “The Problems of Oriental Studies”.

A limited number of funding is available for accommodation in Yerevan (based on needs).

Please circulate widely!

For questions and accessibility concerns, please write to orientconference@ysu.am. Further information can also be found at our website, ysu.am.

2020 Conference Organizing committee

Melkonyan Ruben, Ph.D.
Safaryan Alexandr, Ph.D.
Voskanyan Vardan, Ph.D.
Kocharyan Hayk, Ph.D.
Geghamyan Varuzhan, Ph.D.
Poghosyan Naira, Ph.D.
Tonoyan Artyom, Ph.D.
Sahakyan Naira, Ph.D. candidate