Public lecture

Poetry, Traumatic History, Memory: Thinking about the Armenian Genocide

Dr. Berj H. Haidostian Annual Distinguished Lecture

Program

16 sept. 2026 6:00 PM

University of Michigan Museum of Art, Helmut Stern Auditorium
525 S State St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Michigan - United States

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Peter Balakian will discuss the impact of the Armenian Genocide on his work. He will explore the transmission of trauma across generations and how poetry's resources can ingest the past.

Balakian examines how his ancestors have provided a foundation for his work, ancestors like his great-great uncle, Krikoris Balakian (Bishop in the Armenian Church), one of the 250 cultural leaders arrested on April 24, 1915, and his grandmother, Nafina Shekerlemedjian who along with her two young daughters survived the Genocide enduring a harrowing death march into the Syrian desert.

Zoom: 990 8053 2632

Contact: armenianstudies@umich.edu

Social: @CASumichAA @aspmichigan @iiumich

Center for Armenian Studies, University of Michigan

Program