BELMONT, Mass. — Author and anthropologist Dr. Susan Pattie, director of the Armenian Institute in London and Senior Research Fellow, University College London, will give a lecture titled “Who Are the Armenians? Bringing Armenian History and Culture to Young Readers” on Thursday, June 2, at 8 p.m., at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave.
While in the area, Pattie will also speak to fourth graders at St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School in Watertown about her book by the same name.
Who Are the Armenians? is for both children and adults to learn about the Armenian people. Aimed at children aged 5–12, the book brings the 3,000-year-old Armenian history and culture to life through folktales, language, food, religion, music, dance, art, poetry, sports and games. The book includes information about the Republic of Armenia and also explains how Armenians have made homes all over the world. Who are the Armenians? presents the lives of children in Armenia and diaspora countries showing how they live today. A CD is included with songs, poems, dance music and spoken words. (The book Who Are the Armenians? has no connection with the still-existing permanent and traveling exhibitions of the same name created earlier by the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown.)
Pattie teaches for the Syracuse University London Program and is director of the Armenian Institute. She was a visiting scholar in the Armenian Studies Program and Anthropology Department at the University of Michigan in autumn 2009. Author of Faith in History: Armenians Rebuilding Community (Smithsonian Institution Press) and numerous other publications, Dr. Pattie’s research has focused on Armenians in diaspora, beginning with fieldwork in Cyprus.
Admission to the lecture at NAASR is free (donations appreciated).