Position:
Calouste Gulbenkian Postdoctoral Fellow in Armenian Studies
Faculty / College:
Faculty of Oriental Studies / Pembroke College
Email:
vazken.davidian@orinst.ox.ac.uk
vazkenkdavidian@gmail.com
Academia.edu:
https://oxford.academia.edu/VazkenKhatchigDavidian
Doctoral Thesis:
‘The Image of the Migrant Hamal of Constantinople: Late Nineteenth Century Representations of Migrant Workers from Ottoman Armenia’; PhD in Art History, School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London, 2019.
Research Interests:
Social art historian working on the history of visual art production in the Ottoman Empire and the wider Middle East in the long nineteenth century. Interdisciplinarity beyond boundaries – especially along the intersections of art and cultural history with social, political and economic history and anthropology – is at the heart of my research.
I am particularly interested in:
- The history of cultural production – mainly the visual arts but also in other modes – of Ottoman Armenian and other Ottoman artists throughout the long nineteenth century;
- The social, cultural and intellectual history of Ottoman Armenians and other Ottomans;
- The social reformist literature and endeavours of the late nineteenth century Constantinople Realists (Պոլսահայ Իրապաշտ Սերունդ);
- Transnational ties and exchanges between Ottoman Armenian and other Armenian artists working across the Russian Empire, Europe and the wider Middle East;
- Representations of subaltern groups in the Ottoman Empire including of women, rural migrant workers and the urban poor.
Current Projects:
- I am currently in the process of working on my first monograph entitled Migrant Hamals and Marauding Tribesmen: The Constantinople Realists and Late Nineteenth Century Representations of Armenians and Kurds from the Ottoman East (working title).
- I am also at the initial stages of developing a book project on the widespread nineteenth century production and consumption of portraiture among Ottoman Armenians – of elite and non-elite subjects – and questions of image, politics and identity.
- I have recently been appointed co-editor (with Boris Adjemian) of the multidisciplinary peer-reviewed bilingual journal Études arméniennes contemporaines, published by the Bibliothèque Nubar in Paris.
Edited Volumes:
Towards Inclusive Art Histories: Ottoman Armenian Voices Speak Back, Special Art History Edition of Études arméniennes contemporaines (EAC), No. 6, Bibliothèque AGBU Nubar, Paris, 2015.
Treasured Objects: Armenian Life in the Ottoman Empire One Hundred Years Ago (co-edited with Susan Paul Pattie and Gagik Stepan-Sarkissian), Armenian Institute, London, 2012.
Book Chapters:
‘’His eyes, as if magnets, pull my glance towards them’: Realism, Allegory and the Intimate Portrait of the Rural Migrant from Ottoman Armenia’, Houshamadyan, Vol. II, (forthcoming, Berlin, 2020).
Selected Essays:
‘Image of an Atrocity: Ivan (Hovhanness) Aivazovsky’s Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond, 1895’, EAC No. 11, 2018.
‘Reframing Ottoman Art Histories: Bringing Silenced Voices Back into the Picture’, EAC No. 6, 2015.
‘Portrait of an Ottoman Armenian Artist of Constantinople: Rereading Teotig’s Biography of Simon Hagopian, EAC No. 4, 2014.
