LOS ANGELES — The University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Foundation has added a tour of the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument in Montebello, California to its IWalk mobile application, making it the first Armenian Genocide site of memory to be featured on the innovative educational platform.
Launched in 2014 and available for IOS and Android devices, the IWalk mobile app provides visitors to locations like the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument with personalized multimedia tours — or IWalks — that feature photographs, maps and testimony from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.
The hour-long IWalk in Montebello details the monument’s key role in preserving the memory of the estimated 1.5 million victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Visitors to the landmark can now watch clips of Armenian American scholar Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian describing its founding and Armenian Genocide survivor Hagop Asadourian speaking about the importance of genocide memory.
USC Shoah Foundation Interim Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Kori Street said the new Armenian IWalk provides visitors with a rich, meaningful learning experience.
“IWalks make history come alive by connecting users with places, images, and testimonies,” Dr. Street said. “We are thrilled to be able to deepen learning about a significant historic site of memory for the Armenian community for everyone who visits this monument.”
In addition to the new IWalk, USC Shoah Foundation has launched several other resources for educators to teach their students about the Armenian Genocide. These include the first Eastern- and Western- Armenian-language content to be featured on IWitness, the Institute’s no-cost educational website that reaches millions of students annually. The inclusion of Western Armenian-language content is significant as it is the main dialect spoken by the Armenian diaspora in the wake of the Genocide. UNESCO declared Western Armenian endangered in 2010.
