IASR/NSR Speakers Series, Fall 2019
Time: Tuesday, 1 October 2019, at 16.15-17:45
Place: Tampere University, Pinni B 1096, Kanslerinrinne 1, 1st fl.
Entanglement of Humanitarianism with Colonialism and Orientalism (rescheduled from 29.10.)
Professor Meyda Yeğenoğlu, IASR, Tampere University
This lecture examines numerous texts written during the period of Armenian genocide and its aftermath by officials, politicians, ambassadors, relief workers, missionaries and voluntary workers to unpack how the newly emerging quasi-scientific, evidence-based and technocratic discourse of humanitarianism function as one of the hegemonic narratives in the epistemic field of Armenian genocide. They impose a certain way of speaking about the victim, sufferer, orphan and race, religion, civilization, Christianity and Islam. The enhanced political, diplomatic, missionary and philanthropic interests were instrumental in transforming the Armenian issue into a knowable entity/object, predominantly treated as an issue of minorities living outside the borders of Europe. Representation of Armenia as the origin and cradle of civilization functioned as a prism through which issues that pertain to the Ottoman Empire, Islam and the problems Christian minorities experience under Muslim rule were raised. The humanitarian discourse and practices of the period have created new forms of knowledge that were radically different from the religiously motivated vernacular of the missionaries. It was no longer sentimental, but technocratic, documentary via photographs and eye-witness accounts. This quasi-scientific, ethnographic and institutionalized narratives established a particular form of representation and common tropes that cut across all these texts in addressing the issue of minority rights, civilization, progress, customs and ways of life of different racial, religious and cultural groups. The lecture aims to unpack the ideologies and categories that operate in the narratives of humanitarianism as expressed in the apparitions of universal humanitarian ideals, and show how these texts are tinted and conditioned by European imperial concerns and Orientalist imaginaries.
Welcome!