The University of California, Irvine will host a conference on “Armenian Identity Through the Ages” featuring international scholars involved in the field of Armenian studies.

According to Asbarez, the two-day event will take place on April 6 and 7.

The purpose of the conference is to explore Armenian identity from the remote past to the present. The conference will touch upon issues that have faced Armenians and how they have affected Armenian identity through the ages — how a small kingdom and people have been able to keep their cultural independence and survive. Armenian identity has gone through many changes, and the conference’s discussions will touch upon not only elements of continuity, but also rupture.

The papers from the conference will be edited by Touraj Daryaee and published by Mazda Publishers, an academic publisher since the 1980s which deals with the Iranian and Armenian world. The scheduled publication is in 2016.

The conference is supported by the Vahe and Armine Meghrouni Lecture Series and the UCI School of Humanities.