Dr. Hakem Al-Rustom will give a presentation on his new book, “From Natives to Foreigners: Enduring Erasures of Armenians in Turkey” at Fresno State. The presentation will be held on Friday, March 21, at 7 p.m., in the Grosse Industrial Technology Building, Room 101, on the Fresno State campus. The presentation is funded through the generosity of the Ralph Shabazian Armenian Memorial Fund.
What does it mean for a people to be transformed from indigenous inhabitants to foreigners in their own homeland? This lecture introduces the concept of “denativization” to examine how Armenians in Turkey underwent this transformation. Denativization extends beyond genocide and human rights violations, addressing the systemic erasure of Armenian presence, identity, and history. Through historical events, policies, and cultural shifts, the lecture illustrates how Armenians, once integral to Anatolia, were systematically marginalized and rendered alien in their ancestral land. Rather than viewing the Armenian genocide as a definitive endpoint, this approach highlights its enduring afterlives – showing how erasure and marginalization persist through erasures and historical denial in the present.
Dr. Hakem A. Al-Rustom is the Alex Manoogian Professor of Modern Armenian History, assistant professor of history and of anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is author of “Enduring Erasures: Afterlives of the Armenian Genocide” (forthcoming, July 2025) and the coeditor of “Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation” (2010).
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available in Fresno State P23, at the southeast corner of Barstow and Campus Drive. A parking permit is not required for Friday evening lectures.
The presentation will also be live-streamed on YouTube.
For information about upcoming Armenian Studies Program presentations, please follow us on our Facebook page, @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState or at the Program website.
