
Gender Aspects of the Armenian Genocide in the Experiences of its Female Victims (1914-1918)
Advisor: Taner Akçam
Aleksanyan’s dissertation, Gendered Aspects of the Armenian Genocide in the Experiences of its Victimized Females (1914-1918), demonstrates that the Armenian Genocide had a precise gendered logic. First, the perpetrators targeted intellectuals and the male population through physical destruction. As women and girls represented productive and reproductive resources, the perpetrators of the genocide targeted them for physical annihilation but also for forced assimilation. From 1915 to1916, there was a widespread and systematic campaign to abduct Armenian women and girls who were forced into servitude as slaves, concubines, and wives of Ottoman Muslim men. Aleksanyan also investigates the impact of gender dynamics and cultural practices that were dominant prior to the genocide, which informed the motivations and implementation of the genocide. Equally significant, she shows how, under genocidal circumstances, traditional gender roles metamorphosed and then served as an important source of individual and national survival.
Education:
- B.A., History, Yerevan State University, 2005
- M.A., History, Yerevan State University, 2007
Publications:
Fellowships:
- Vartan Gregorian scholarship by Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, 2019
- Harry and Ovsanna Chitjian Fellowship, 2014-2018
- National Association for Armenian Studies Travel Grand (2015)
- National Association for Armenian Studies & Knights of Vartan Fund for Armenian Studies Travel Grant (2018)
- Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Short Term Grant on Armenian Studies (2018)