Within the scope of the Hrant Dink Foundation History Program, the speech entitled “Presencing an Absence: Accountability and Memory in the Aftermath of 1915” was held on Tuesday, June 30, by Armen T. Marsoobian.

In his speech, Marsoobian presented his Memory Work that consists of the pictures taken and preserved by Dildilian family and talked about how it has evolved in past 10 years. Through these photographs, Marsoobian presented the journey of Dildilian family from Anatolia to Greece and then finally to USA. In his work, he tried to reveal that not only Armenian community and their sense of community were under attack, but also Armenian culture, art and language faced near destruction. But most importantly, Marsoobian aims to track this culture and memory that was close to destruction in order to keep it alive. With this purpose, Marsoobian examines the photographs that were taken between 1888-1922 in Anatolia and 1923-1980 in Greece and then in the USA, and he tried to identify the activities, the people and the places shown. He presented these photographs throughout his speech.

 Armen T. Marsoobian is the Chair of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University and editor of the journal Metaphilosophy. He publishes in American Philosophy, aesthetics, moral philosophy, genocide studies, and memory studies, co-editing seven books, most recently, Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Genocide and Memory. His award-winning book, Fragments of a Lost Homeland: Remembering Armenia, is based upon extensive research about his family. A Turkish edition, Yitik Bir Yurdun Kırıntıları: Ermenistan’ı Hatırlamak was recently published. A companion book of photographs, Dildilyan Kardeşler – Kayıp Bir Ermeni Evin Hatıraları: Anadolu’da Ermeni Bir Ailenin Fotoğrafları ve Öyküsü, 1888-1923, appeared in 2015. An expanded version of this book was published in 2017, Reimagining a Lost Armenian Home: The Dildilian Photography Collection. Exhibitions based on the collection were mounted in Turkey, Armenia, Great Britain, and the United States.