Thursday, February 17, 2000

Wilmington, NC- Focusing on two major cases of centrally organized mass murder in this century, the Armenian genocide and the Jewish holocaust, Professor Vahakn N. Dadrian of the Zoryan Institute, based in Cambridge, Mass. and Toronto, Canada, will present "Genocide as a Problem of the 20th Century" at 3 p.m., Monday, Feb. 28 in King Auditorium.

Dadrian's talk will detail the critical role of how power was used in the Jewish holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and the victimization of American Indians, conflicts that developed between a powerful perpetrator group and a vulnerable victim group.

One of the foremost scholars of the Armenian genocide, Dadrian devoted more than 30 years of research which resulted in the 1995 publication of his book, The History of Armenian Genocide. This groundbreaking research was supported by two grants from the National Science Foundation. In the 1970s, Dadrian helped create the field of the Comparative Study of Genocide, while a professor of sociology at the State University of New York.

In 1995, he was the first Armenian scholar invited to the British Parliament, where he delivered a lecture commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Armenian genocide before the House of Commons. The Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia awarded Dadrian with an honorary doctorate degree in 1995 for his contribution to the study of Armenian genocide. In addition, Dadrian was decorated with the Khorenatzi Medal, the Republic's highest cultural award, in October 1998 by the President of the Republic of Armenia.

This lecture, which is sponsored by UNCW College of Arts and Sciences, is free and open to the public.