As cultural heritage has moved to the center of 21st century conflicts, it has become a spectral presence, leaving traces of trauma, erasure, and loss. Nowhere has the spectrality of heritage been more acute than in the South Caucasus, a region wracked by decades of violence, ethnic cleansing, animosity, and nationalism. This presentation will introduce the practice of heritage forensics in relation to the ongoing research program of Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW). Founded in 2020 in the wake of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, CHW uses the techniques of cultural aerospace to document, detect, and deter attacks on the fragile remains of the human past. This talk is organized around three forensic dossiers on medieval and early modern heritage caught in the crosshairs of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Adam T. Smith is Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology at Cornell Universitv and Director of the Cornell Institute of
Archaeology and Material Studies (CIAMS). CHW co-director.
Ian Lindsay is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University, CHW co-founder and director.
Lori Khatchadourian is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology at Cornell University. CHW cofounder and director.
Husik Ghulyan is a visiting scholar at the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, and Lead Researcher at CHW.
Co-sponsors: Department of History of Art and Architecture, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies, Program on Georgian Studies, Department of Anthropology, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, NAASR/Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues