The third Kerr Family Lecture will feature Vahram L. Shemmassian, Ph.D., professor and director of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge, with introductory remarks by Rouben Adalian, Ph.D., director of the Armenian National Institute (ANI) in Washington, DC.

Thursday, March 12, 2026
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Founders' Room of the UCLA James West Alumni Center
325 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095

The Musa Dagh resistance to the Armenian Genocide in 1915 attained epic proportions by virtue of its heroics, the involvement of the French Mediterranean Navy, the contemporaneous international press coverage, and eventually the publication of Franz Werfel’s historical novel, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, that has been translated to some forty languages.  Several factors and individuals led to the successful outcome of this unusual episode.  One of the leaders was Rev. Dikran Antreasian, a native Evangelical pastor, whose contribution to the survival of his people in 1915 and beyond has not been studied adequately.  This lecture will deal with the following phases of his meritorious life. First, he served as the Chairman of the General Administrative Body that oversaw both the civilian and military aspects of the fights.  Second, he conceived the idea of preparing a Red Cross flag and a second banner inscribed “Christians in Distress—Rescue” to draw the attention of Allied warships cruising in the Eastern Mediterranean.  Third, he composed a letter in English addressed to the governments of the Allies and their military explaining the Musa Dagh predicament and asking for help.  Fourth, as the people were rescued and settled at a refugee camp near Port Said, Egypt, he delivered a lecture at the American Mission in Cairo, which talk was translated to English, sent to the United States and elsewhere as a booklet, and generated significant funds for the refugees. Fifth, he acted as the Evangelical pastor of the camp seeking not just the physical safety of his compatriots, but also their spiritual salvation.  Sixth, after repatriating to Musa Dagh at the end of World War I, he solicited money and alimentation for the subsistence of his endangered people from the American Near East Relief and the British Friends of Armenia Society, headquartered in London.  Seventh, he in 1935 published a revised edition of his participant observer account of the resistance.  This book is considered the most objective and balanced rendition of what had transpired in 1915.    

Despite Rev. Antreasian’s selfless devotion to the survival of his compatriots in various leading capacities, he was forsaken for decades due to the fierce rivalry among the Armenian political parties vying for the ownership of the successful outcome of the Musa Dagh resistance.  With the passage of time, he was “rehabilitated” with public displays of acknowledgement of his significant role in the rescue and revival of Musa Dagh Armenians.  However, he still needs to be elevated to a higher consciousness and find his place in the general history of the Armenian nation.

This endowed lectureship is named in honor of the Kerr family, whose progenitors include Professor Stanley and Elsa Reckman Kerr, who helped to rescue and provide exemplary humanitarian care for survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23. The annual Kerr Family Lectureship is designed to amplify the stories of heroes and heroines who dedicated themselves to saving and supporting victims and survivors of violence and mass atrocities in times of crisis.

Vahram L. Shemmassian, Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the California State University, Northridge.  He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  He has conducted extensive research in forty governmental, institutional, and organizational archives in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Armenia on the Armenians of Musa Dagh and Armenian Genocide survivors in the Middle East at the end of World War I.  He has published some 35 scholarly articles in peer reviewed journals and as book chapters, delivered lectures and keynote speeches at community events and in universities, and participated in and organized international conferences.  He has also published two books: The Musa Dagh Armenians: A Socioeconomic and Cultural History, 1919-1939 (2015), and The Armenians of Musa Dagh: From Obscurity to Genocide Resistance and Fame, 1840-1915 (2020).  The latter is being translated to Eastern Armenian and Russian.  A third book, titled Religion and Education in Armenian Musa Dagh 1919-1939, is ready for publication.  For his contributions to the field of Armenian Studies and community involvement, Dr, Shemmassian has received awards from the US House of Representatives, the Ministry of the Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia, and Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, among others.

Rouben Adalian received a Ph.D. in history from UCLA specializing in the Caucasus and the Middle East. He has taught at a number of universities, including the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University; School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; and School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.  He is also the author of From Humanism to Rationalism: Armenian Scholarship in the Nineteenth Century (1992), and Historical Dictionary of Armenia (2002, 2nd expanded and updated edition, 2010), and contributed to several publications, such as The Making of Foreign Policy in Russia and the New States of Eurasia (1995), and Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (2004).  In 1993 Dr. Adalian completed the collection of documents on the Armenian Genocide in the United States National Archives.  As a result, Chadwyck-Healey Inc. publishing 37,000 pages of American evidence along with the accompanying 476-page Guide to the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Archives 1915-1918 issued in 1994. Dr. Adalian was also the associate editor of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Genocide (1999), and contributed to a number of publications including Genocide in Our Time (1992), Genocide in the Twentieth Century (1995), Studies in Comparative Genocide (1999), Pioneers of Genocide Studies (2002), America and the Armenian Genocide (2003), and the widely utilized textbook Centuries of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (2023) now in its 5th edition.  Dr. Adalian is currently Director of the Armenian National Institute (ANI), a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public through the study, research, and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.  ANI maintains the largest institutional website on the Armenian Genocide, www.armenian-genocide.org, which hosts a multitude of instructional resources, including a set of downloadable digital exhibits based on the documented photographic evidence of the Armenian Genocide retrieved from the U.S. National Archives, the Library of Congress, and other American repositories.

This event will take place at the Founders' Room of the UCLA James West Alumni Center. 

Visitor parking available at UCLA Parking Structure 8.

1. Park on the roof of Parking Structure 8
2. Pay for parking at a Paystation
3. Take the stairs or the elevator to Level 1/Westwood Plaza
4. Cross the street towards your left or diagonally, continuing north, past the bus stop
5. The James West Alumni Center will be directly in front of you at the north end of Westwood Plaza/roundabout.

Please note: This event will be photographed and recorded for documentation and distribution. All audience members agree to the possibility of appearing in these photographs and recordings by virtue of attending the event or participating in the event.

Sponsor(s): The Promise Armenian Institute