The Ararat-Eskijian Museum, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and the Armenian Genocide Research Program within the PAI at UCLA present "Fridtjof Nansen: Humanitarianism and the Armenian Question in the Interwar Period" by Dr. Roy Knocke, director of Potsdam Lepsius House and associate lecturer at the University of Potsdam.

Sunday, October 2, 2022
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Pacific Time)

The event will take place in-person at the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, Sheen Chapel, 15105 Mission Hills Road, Mission Hills CA 91345.

Livestream: Ararat Eskijian Museum YouTube channel. 

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was an exceptional European figure. As a scientist, adventurer and polar explorer he made a name for himself early on. In the final decade of his life, Nansen worked for the League of Nations and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. He was a central figure of tackling the European refugee crisis after the decline of the multi-ethnic Ottoman, Romanov, Habsburg and Hohenzollern empires. The lecture sheds light on Nansen humanitarian merits during the interwar period, especially on his commitment for the Armenians, a people to whom he admiringly dedicated one of his last books Gjennem Armenia in 1927 (translated as Armenia and the Near East in 1928).

Dr. Roy Knocke is the director of the Potsdam Lepsius House and an associate lecturer at the University of Potsdam with focus on the history of genocide, history of humanitarianism and the moral history of extreme political violence in the 20th century. He published on moral and socio-philosophical aspects of genocide, on Franz Werfel and the Armenian Genocide and on the origins, manifestations and aftermath of political violence in the 20th century. Currently, he is working on an four volume annotated historico-critical edition of Johannes Lepsius’ works on the Armenian question, a key figure in the German humanitarian pro-Armenian movement.