A collection of my opinion pieces and cultural analysis published in the local Toronto-Armenian monthly paper, exploring diasporan identity, community dynamics, and cultural preservation.
I can summarize contemporary discourse on learning and preserving Armenian in the diaspora into two camps. The first is a traditional, conservative view that treats Armenian language acquisition as a moral obligation for all diasporans. The second is a more contemporary perspective that acknowledges uneven access to Armenian education...
Can people tell you're Armenian without you explicitly telling them? How much information do you need before you detect the 'Armenian-ness' in someone else? How visible are Armenians in your non-Armenian spaces (workplace, school, etc.)? I've been thinking about this a lot lately...
Most Toronto Armenians visit Armenia during the only two months when Toronto has nice weather. Well, that season is finally upon us. Whether you choose to visit as a tourist for two weeks or take a longer trip working and volunteering with various organizations, you stand to gain wonderful memories and a better understanding of a country you might identify as your 'homeland.'
A few months ago, I interviewed Dr. Victoria Rowe about her dissertation on Armenian women's writing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Our conversation, featured in the February 2025 issue of Torontohye, left me deeply impressed by her research and curious. Was there any recent analysis of modern Armenian women's writing? Google Scholar didn't offer many answers, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and analyze Armenian women's writing myself.
Dr. Victoria Rowe is a PhD graduate from the University of Toronto (UofT). Her dissertation entitled "The 'New Armenian Woman:' Armenian Women's Writing in the Ottoman Empire, 1880-1915" was published in 2000 and is still available online via UofT's virtual TSpace library. I connected with Rowe over two decades after her dissertation was published. The story of how I came to find her can be found in Torontohye's Dec. 2024 issue.
Dr. Victoria Rowe is a PhD graduate from the University of Toronto. Her dissertation, entitled "The 'New Armenian Woman:' Armenian Women's Writing in the Ottoman Empire, 1880-1915," was published in 2000 and is still available online via the University of Toronto's (UofT) virtual TSpace library. More than 20 years later, while I was a high school student experiencing the fresh high of getting into university, I read the dissertation.
Ara Baliozian marched into my parents' kitchen and ripped the painting of Mount Ararat, proudly hung above the dining table, into shreds. Obviously, that did not literally happen. But I couldn't help but feel attacked when I read the opening lines of one of his books, which warned the reader that they "will not find in here any lamentation after the fact or chauvinist nonsense about the eternal snows of Mount Ararat."
I didn't know I was ugly until I visited Armenia as an adult woman.
A few months ago, something strange happened in my Instagram feed. Many of my Toronto-Armenian friends had started reposting content from a relatively new account called Learn for Artsakh. The account featured simple infographics promoting support for Armenian issues, such as Artsakh’s right to self-determination, designed to be digestible for Armenians and non-Armenians alike.