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Heghnar Watenpaugh

@heghnarw.bsky.social

160 followers 160 following 7 posts

Writer, Art Historian, Professor at University of California Davis @ucdavis. Guggenheim Fellow @GuggFellows Art, human rights, cultural heritage, museums, genocide, Middle East, South Caucasus

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Heghnar Watenpaugh @heghnarw.bsky.social · Dec 19

The paperback edition of my book #TheMissingPages is out! The award-winning biography of a #Medieval #Armenian #manuscript that is at once art, sacred object, and #culturalheritage, the legal battle for its #restitution, and the #humanright to art.
www.sup.org/books/art-an...

The Missing Pages | Stanford University Press

In 2010, the world's wealthiest art institution, the J. Paul Getty Museum, found itself confronted by a century-old genocide. The Armenian Church was suing for the return of eight pages from the Zeytu...

www.sup.org

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Zeynep Ertugrul @zepertug.bsky.social · Sep 2

This special issue of the European Journal of Turkish Studies features a section called “Le Meurtre et la Langue,” co-authored by Emmanuel Szurek and me, which explores how early republican popular educators discussed the genocide in 1930s Turkey.
journals.openedition.org/ejts/8382

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Karima Bennoune @profkarimabennoune.bsky.social · Aug 20

Join us Thurs SEPT 18 for

"Countering #GenderApartheid with International Law: A Strategic Convening"
@UMichLaw

Public hybrid panels 9AM-1PM ET; 1225 Jeffries Hall
Register for Zoom: tinyurl.com/4xxywu7h

Speakers incl: UN Special Rapporteur on #Afghanistan; Mariam Safi & Malala Yousafzai(video)

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Jul 14

Relooted, one of the most anticipated video games of 2025, allows players to take stolen African artifacts from Western museums and return them to their home countries.

AJ+ talked to one of the creators...

www.instagram.com/reel/DMETOk6...

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Gothamist @gothamist.com · Apr 24

Members of New York’s Armenian community called on Mayor Eric Adams to break his silence on the Armenian genocide and give it official recognition as mayor on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

Armenians in NYC mark genocide and Mayor Adams' ongoing silence

Federal prosecutors said the mayor agreed to a Turkish government official’s request not to make any statements about the Armenian genocide in 2022

gothamist.com

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Hrag Vartanian @hrag.bsky.social · Apr 23

Please demand that our elected officials not play with the facts of history and clearly state the Armenian Genocide happened, just like Mayors de Blasio, Bloomberg, Giuliani, and Koch did before him. Honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

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Hrag Vartanian @hrag.bsky.social · Apr 23

Please SIGN and SHARE this petition that asks NYC Mayor Adams to unequivocally recognize the Armenian Genocide after last year's federal indictment that stated that days before the 2022 Remembrance a Turkish official sought assurances that Adams would refrain from making any statements about it.

Sign the Petition

New York City Mayor Eric Adams Must Unequivocally Recognize the Armenian Genocide

chng.it

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Heghnar Watenpaugh @heghnarw.bsky.social · Apr 16

Congratulations Yannis! Much needed good news.

Heghnar Watenpaugh @heghnarw.bsky.social · Apr 16

Wonderful review of a brilliant , poignant, and funny play by Sona Tatoyan at Potrero Stage in San Francisco. Do not miss it! #shadowpuppettheatre #hakawati #Aleppo #ArmenianGenocide

Lily Janiak @lilyjaniak.bsky.social · Apr 15

Golden Thread Productions and Hakawati NGO's "Azad (The Rabbit and the Wolf)" has such a complex structure I'm still trying to understand how it all worked, along with direction that seemed to marshal the storytelling capabilities of every corner of the stage. www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...

‘Azad’ review: The Armenian genocide and puppets make for shattering theater

The wondrous “Azad (The Rabbit and the Wolf)” somehow combines uproarious shadow puppetry with devastating drama about family history.

www.sfchronicle.com

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Lily Janiak @lilyjaniak.bsky.social · Apr 15

‘Azad’ review: The Armenian genocide and puppets make for shattering theater

The wondrous “Azad (The Rabbit and the Wolf)” somehow combines uproarious shadow puppetry with devastating drama about family history.

www.sfchronicle.com

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Archives and Records Association UK and Ireland @araukie.bsky.social · Apr 8

Calling all record-keepers: Call for Papers for Archives and Records special issue: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Archives & Records
Find our more and how to submit here. www.archives.org.uk/...

Call for Papers for Archives and Records special issue: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Archives & Records — Archives & Records Association

Archives and Records is the journal of the Archives and Records Association. A special issue on Trauma-Informed Approaches to Archives and Records has a call for proposals: Trauma-Informed Approaches for Archives and Records Special Issue Call for Papers Call for Proposals Archives and Records

www.archives.org.uk

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Alice Wickenden @awickenden.bsky.social · Apr 8

is this a safe space to admit that I thought dire wolves were invented by George R R Martin

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Karima Bennoune @profkarimabennoune.bsky.social · Apr 9

Remembering my father Mahfoud Bennoune on what would've been his 89th birthday

In these harrowing times, I'm inspired by the fact that he never gave up working for freedom & dignity & knowledge & reason & humanity in his beloved #Algeria & in the world

We shouldn't either

mahfoudbennoune.com

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Cultural Heritage Studies @ University of Vienna @heritageunivie.bsky.social · Mar 25

🎨 Check out our new guest lectures for the summer term on Museums, Exhibitions & Conservation, organized by @noemieetienne.bsky.social. Speakers include @silas-blue.bsky.social, @heghnarw.bsky.social & @cageinbeakifly.bsky.social and many others.

📅 Wednesdays 9:15–10:45am CET.
✍️ DM for Zoom link!

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Heghnar Watenpaugh @heghnarw.bsky.social · Feb 23

Thank you @hrag.bsky.social for a fantastic presentation and discussion on Friday. An audience of 163 people who did not want to leave. #arthistory #culturalheritage #manettishremmuseum

Hrag Vartanian @hrag.bsky.social · Feb 23

A great turn out at the Templeton Colloquium and wonderful responses to my lecture of the role of critics in empire and our complicity #ManettiShremMuseum #UCDavis

Over 150 people seated in a room as seen from the perspective of the stage

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Heghnar Watenpaugh @heghnarw.bsky.social · Feb 23

It would make a great essay Hrag, but it was also a thoughtful performance piece

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Heghnar Watenpaugh @heghnarw.bsky.social · Feb 11

Thank you for the shoutout!

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pinkprincessinthecity •🌸🌃🧳•👩🏻‍🎨👩🏻‍🔬🕵🏻‍♀️👩🏻‍🏫👩🏻‍💻👩🏻‍🍳•🏮🧧🎍• @pinkprincess.bsky.social · Aug 25

Chances are, you've already read Heghnar Watenpaugh 's book.
But, if you haven't, I highly recommend it.
You'll definitely appreciate it.

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Artīs Vitae @artisvitae.bsky.social · Dec 16

Survivor Objects and Captive Sites: Art and Cultural Heritage in Genocide with Heghnar Watenpaugh
Getty Research Institute
www.youtube.com/live/8x1W_AT...

YouTube

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

www.youtube.com

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Hrag Vartanian @hrag.bsky.social · Feb 3

I wrote about the current Guerrilla Girls exhibition at Hannah Traore gallery and how they changed the art world. #NYC

Not All Superheroes Wear Capes, Some Don Gorilla Masks

This one-room exhibition is a good reminder of how this anonymous group of artists changed how we saw the art world.

hyperallergic.com

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Lynda Albertson @sauterne.bsky.social · Jan 12

The fact that some people are debating whether Greenland should be taken over by the US or continued to be "occupied" by Denmark as if the native Greenlandic Inuit population have nothing to say about it, indicates to what extent some of these folks have not opened a single history book.

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EthiopicManuscriptArt @artethiopic.bsky.social · Jan 1

In order to succeed, every writer needs two helpers: one to hold the parasol and another to hold the flywhisk

Ethiopia, 17th c. (?) #luke #evangelist #gospel #scribe #africanwriter #africanart

Ethiopian depiction of Luke the Evangelist as a scribe. He holds a parchment sheet in the left hand and is dipping his pen in a black inkwell with his right hand. He is dressed in an ochre garment with a white garment above it. Next to him are standing two unnamed figures, one holding a parasol, the other a flywhisk.

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Chasing Aphrodite @chasingaphrodite.bsky.social · Dec 14

What’s Next: Armenian Genocide Restitution in the Post-Recognition Era.

“The documentary follows the proceedings of a conference that took place at UCLA on March 25, 2023 and explored Armenian genocide cultural restitution in depth.”

www.international.ucla.edu/armenia/arti...

Release of Documentary on Armenian Genocide Looted Art and Restitution

The film explores questions about the possibilities of creating an Armenian genocide reparation movement post-recognition, the opportunities within the American legal system for reparation, and using ...

www.international.ucla.edu

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Erin L. Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social · Dec 18

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco acquired four sculptures looted from Thailand in the 1960s. Instead of making a quiet repatriation, they're using the process to invite discussion of what a museum is for and how it can be used by communities: exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/...

Installation view for the "Moving Objects: Learning from Local and Global Communities" exhibition at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

Close-up photograph of an ancient bronze sculpture in the "Moving Objects: Learning from Local and Global Communities" exhibition at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

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Heghnar Watenpaugh @heghnarw.bsky.social · Dec 20

What a great list Jason! Could you please add me? Thanks and it was great seeing you the other day!

Reposted by Heghnar Watenpaugh

Getty @gettymuseum.bsky.social · Dec 19

just out on my little medieval mental health walk

A medieval illustration of a man with a weasel on a leash taking a stroll

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