An international academic conference titled “Independence and Beyond: In Search of a New Armenian Diaspora after 1991,” will take place at the University of Southern California on April 27, The Armenian Weekly reported.

The one-day conference is organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western U.S. Central Committee, in collaboration with the University of Southern California Institute of Armenian Studies and the Armenian Review. It will take place at the Davidson Conference Center of the USC.

Through its various presentations and discussions, the conference seeks to examine the impact of the independence of the Republic of Armenia and subsequent processes of nation-building there on various facets of Diaspora life, such as political ideologies and cultural narratives, linguistic and literary production, organizations and institutions, economic investment, remittances and affiliation, and hybrid identity formation.

The four thematic panels will feature leading scholars of Armenian, Diaspora, and Transnational Studies. Using their expertise in fields that range from Political Science and History to Literature and Journalism, the conference participants will work toward new frameworks and definitions in conceptualizing “Diaspora” in the Armenian context. Traditional paper presentations will be given in panels entitled, “Revisions of the Narrative of Return” and “Cultural Narratives and Language in and Evolving Diaspora,” while thematic conversations will be held in discussion panels entitled, “New Definitions of Diaspora and Nationalism” and “Online Space and the Politics of Information Exchange.”

The event is free of charge and open to the public.