The Center for Advanced Genocide Studies and the Institute of Armenian Studies at the University of Southern California are sponsoring a noontime program on Thursday, March 5, featuring Professor Richard Hovannisian and his Armenian Genocide Oral History Collection.

During his more than fifty years of teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, Hovannisian created a course in the 1970s on Armenian Oral History, in which he trained students to interview survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

Over the years, some 1,000 interviews have been conducted, becoming the largest collection of its kind in existence. In 2018, the Richard Hovannisian Collection was entrusted to the Shoah Foundation at USC for preservation and academic and scholarly research.

In the March 5 program, Hovannisian will discuss the origins and development of his course at UCLA, as well the uses and potential misuses of oral testimony. His former students Lorna Tourian Miller, Tamar Mashigian and Salpi Ghazarian will share their own impressions and experiences in adding to the collection.

“Preserving History: Armenian Voices from the Classroom to the Archive,” featuring Prof. Hovannisian will take place at noon on Tuesday, March 5 at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library in Los Angeles.