The Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) will hold its annual conference in Washington, D.C. on November 18, 2017. The conference, sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, will take place in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), at the Washington, D.C. Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, November 18-21, 2017. 

The theme of the SAS conference will be “Transmitting Western Armenian to the Next Generation.”  
The conference will be composed of two panels: 
1) “Teaching Armenian in a Diasporan Context”
2) “Western Armenian in the Digital Age” 

Panel 1) “Teaching Armenian in a Diasporan Context” During the last several years teachers of Armenian, particularly in the United States, have confronted the challenges in teaching the modern language. Concrete theoretical and practical problems need to be formulated and explored and innovative methodology needs to be developed. A study of the efficacy in teaching Armenian in schools and/or at the college level would also be beneficial to determine the status of Armenian in those settings and steps to be followed. 
 
Panel 2) “Western Armenian in the Digital Age” The presence of Western Armenian on the Internet and on digital formats has grown over the past few years. The first applications and software have also been produced. Fact based assessments of the quality and quantity of that work and the relation to actual needs of the “market,” including a correlation with Western Armenian teaching, are imperative. Papers on the best ways to incorporate technology into teaching Western Armenian would be beneficial.
 
It is important to emphasize the fact that SAS is not only interested in an exchange of ideas regarding these vital issues and the challenges facing Western Armenian, but is also interested in making concrete recommendations about these two themes.The outcomes of these papers will be published in an edited volume either in the peer-reviewed Journal of Society for Armenian Studies (JSAS) or in a relevant press.
 
Abstracts of no more than 250 words along with a short bio should be submitted to Bedross Der Matossian, [email protected], by 31 July 2017. Draft papers will be required to be submitted no later than October 18, 2017.