Earlier this year, Armenoui Kasparian Saraidari spent five months at the Kluge Center researching the photographs and memories of Armenians during the First World War.
Currently in the third year of her Ph.D. at University of the Arts London, Saraidari’s project, titled “The Materiality of Photography and the Memory of the Armenian Genocide,” documents the plight of the Armenian population in the late Ottoman period and later in the years of exile post-WWI.
Saraidari was a British Research Council Fellow at the Kluge Center, a program that allows outstanding scholars at British universities and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council or Economic and Social Research Council to conduct short-term research at the Library of Congress. She spoke about her experience in a recent interview:
My fellowship at the J.W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress was a milestone in my PhD. First, it offered a positive timeline for developing my project and organising my reading, writing and practice. Secondly, the research itself that I conducted in the archives wouldn’t have been achieved without this fellowship. Finally, it was a great opportunity to associate with international scholars from other disciplines and build bonds with other institutions worldwide.
In the course of her research at the Library of Congress, Saraidari examined photographs from the American Red Cross held by the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. She is now working with reproductions of the material to introduce new narratives into the history of the Armenian people and diaspora.
Read the full interview with Armenoui Kasparian Saraidarion the University of the Arts of London blog.
More about the International Placement Scheme of the Arts and Humanities Research Council can be found on their website.