As part of the Armenians in 2115 series of events the Armenian Communities Department is co-organizing with the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) an international conference about education in the Diaspora entitled, Innovation in Education: Challenges of Teaching Western Armenian in the 21st Century. The conference will be held in Paris at INALCO (65 rue des Grands Moulins, 75013 Paris) on the 21^st and 22^nd September 2015 and includes a public event at the Gulbenkian Paris office.

The conference will be opened by Martin Essayan, Trustee of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The keynote speaker is Professor Gil Schmerler (Bank Street College, NY, USA). The conference is open to the public and will be conducted in three languages: Armenian, French and English (simultaneous translation will be provided).

The purpose of the conference is to discuss the challenges of teaching and learning Western Armenian by bringing together a diverse group of field experts along with stakeholders who have developed successful education models in order to outline the priorities of an applied research programme for the Western Armenian language today.

The program includes panels where specialists will present their research addressing a wide range of contemporary issues, as well as, several round-tables which will foster active debates.

On the 21 of September an evening event will be hosted at the Calouste Gulbenkian Delegation in France (39 Boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg, 75007 Paris). The event will be chaired by Razmik Panossian, Director of the Armenian Communities Department, Professor Anaïd Donabédian (Inalco, IRD and AUB) will present her research: L’arménien occidental en France, leçons d’une enquête publique: défis  sociétaux, défis scientifiques.  The discussants will be: Hagop Gulludjian (UCLA), Silva Kuyumcuyan (Getronagan High School), Hagop A. Yacoubian (Haigazian University), and Ani Garmiryan (CGF).

In addition a 4 hour public workshop will be organized, at INALCO, in cooperation with Descobrir: Programa Gulbenkian Educação para Cultura e Ciência, with the theme Teaching and Learning a Language Through Art and Culture. The first part of the workshop will be on Monday 21^st of September at 16:15, the second part will be on Tuesday 22^nd at 17:30. The workshop will be led by two Portuguese artists, Maria Gil and Sofia Cabrita.  Please note the workshop is only available by pre-registration and is limited to 20 participants.

To find out more information please click here.

To consult the conference programme please click here.