4,000 attend USC Innovate Armenia programMay 23, 2019 - 11:26 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Innovate Armenia, the festival of ideas and innovation, took place at the University of Southern California on May 18. Organized by the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, the program featured fifty participants from six countries, and nearly 4,000 attendees. This is the fourth time in five years that this unique event has been staged by the Institute. “Innovate Armenia is an inclusive, fun, provocative platform that tackles the greatest challenge of any homeland-diaspora relationship: how to better understand each other. Following the critical, radical changes in Armenia’s politics last year, a discussion of policy remains crucially needed both in Armenia and in the Diaspora. This was a part of that discussion. The rest—music, beer, coffee, storytelling, chess—that’s all an authentic, but light, reminder of who we are and who we can be,” said Salpi Ghazarian, director of the Institute. The day-long festival had multiple intersecting parts. In the morning, scholars inside the USC Bovard Auditorium delved into topics of identity and memory. George Aghjayan’s “Genealogy as Identity,” Heghnar Watenpaugh’s “The Tangible Past,” Mehmet Fatih Uslu’s “Identity: It’s Complicated,” Matthew Karanian’s “Landscapes of Memory,” and Avedis Hadjian’s “How to Forget,” all explored identity as a changing and shifting force, and memory in regards to cultural heritage, genocide, and land. At noon, Element Band, in collaboration with the Institute, presented a different type of musical performance, entitled “SOUND STORIES: The Songs You Know, with the Stories You Don’t Know.” Following the musical production, government officials from Armenia, policymakers, and scholars from around the world tackled the most urgent issues facing the Armenian nation. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the standing-room only audience by Skype. Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan, Deputy Foreign Minister of Karabakh Armine Aleksanyan, Former Prime Minister Vache Gabrielyan, Deputy Minister of Nature Protection Irina Ghaplanyan, Deputy Minister of Education Arevik Anapiosyan, Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan spoke about security, policy, statehood, the environment, and the economy. Related links: Top stories The EU does not intend to conduct military exercises with Armenia, Lead Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano says. Hikmet Hajiyev has said that there is no place for USAID operation in Azerbaijan any longer. A telephone conversation between Putin and Pashinyan before the CSTO summit is not planned, Peskov says. London’s Armenian community has been left feeling “under attack” after the city’s Genocide monument was vandalised. Partner news | Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. Armenia to sing in 2nd semi-final of Eurovision The organizers of Eurovision 2024 have revealed the running order of the countries in the two semi-finals. |