Los Angeles Scholars from Armenia Argentina Canada France Great Britain and several universities in the United States will gather at UCLA on November 2-3 to recreate the history and culture of the vibrant Armenian community of Smyrna/Izmir from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. The conference is the eleventh in the UCLA series on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces. Open to the public without charge it will be held on the UCLA campus in Young Hall 50 on Saturday November 2 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday afternoon November 3 from 1:30 to 6:00 p.m. Parking will be available in Structure No. 2 at the Hilgard Avenue and Wyton entrance to UCLA. A special feature of the conference will be the first Sunday session which will be conducted in the Armenian language from 1:30 to 3:15 p.m. with presentations by Dr. Albert Kharatyan and Tigran Sarukhanyan from Armenia the first being on the role of the Smyrna community in the 19th century and the second on the importance of Hrachia Ajarian s history of that community. Dr. Nora Arissian from Damascus Syria will discuss how Smyrna and the Smyrna tragedy were reported and portrayed in Arabic sources and journals. The second special feature is the second Sunday afternoon session from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. which will mark the 80th anniversary of the Smyrna tragedy of 1922 when the city was burned and the Greek and Armenian inhabitants were driven into the sea. During this session which will be conducted in English renowned scholar Speros Vryonis Jr. will discuss the impact of the Greco-Turkish conflict in Asia Minor on the fate of the city and noted writer Marjorie Housepian Dobkin will investigate the burning of Smyrna based on her pioneering study on the subject. Literary aspects of the Smyrna tragedy will be presented by Dr. David Calonne of Eastern Michigan University and Dr. Jack Der-Sarkissian of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. The Saturday morning sessions from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. will focus on the Aegean Armenian communities starting in the 14th century with a presentation by Dr. Kharatyan (in Armenian with English summary). The remainder of the Saturday sessions will be in English and include an overview of the Smyrna Armenia community by Richard Hovannisian of UCLA and by Robert Hewsen of Rowan State University; Artsvi Bakhchinyan of Erevan (ACNIS) on Swedish-Armenian relations; Barbara Merguerian of Fresno State University on the American missionary publications at Smyrna; Osheen Keshishian Glendale Community College and the Armenian Observer on the role of the newspaper Arshaloys Araratian; and Christian Maranci of the University of Wisconsin on the visual culture and arts of Smyrna Armenians. The Saturday afternoon sessions from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. begin with Dr. Sona Seferian of Erevan State University on Armenian Literature Shakespeare and the Enlightenment in Smyrna; Victoria Rowe of the University of Toronto on the Hripsime Educational Association; Hevre Georgelin of the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris) on inter-ethnic relations in Smyrna; Rubina Peroomian of UCLA on the Armenian oral histories on the fate of the Aegean communities during the Genocide; Vartan Matiossian of Buenos Aires and the Hovnanian School on the Smyrna-Armenian immigrant communities in South America; and Bert Vaux of Harvard on the dialect of the Smyrna Armenians. A Photographic exhibit for the conference will be mounted by Richard and Anne Elizabeth Elbrecht of Davis California. The conference is organized by Professor Richard G. Hovannisian Holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA. Co-sponsors for the conference are the UCLA G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies the Center for European and Russian Studies and the International Institute. The conference program and other information about the UCLA Armenian Studies program may be found on the web site www.uclaarmenian.org and a map of the UCLA campus may be found at www.ucla.edu/map (note the change in the conference auditorium for this conference). Armenian Studies Conference hotel rates are available at the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel Air 310-476-6411. For further conference information contact Professor Richard Hovannisian at 310-825-3375 (a.m. hours) or by e-mail at Hovannis@history.ucla.edu. The public is cordially invited to attend The Armenian Community of Smyrna/Izmir.