Glendale Community Excited to Learn About USC Shoah Foundation at Public Presentation

Over 85 members of the Glendale, Calif. community attended a presentation organized by the Glendale Public Library on Oct. 26 about the Visual History Archive’s Armenian Genocide testimony collection and educational resources on IWitness.

After an introduction from Glendale Public Library's Armenian Outreach Coordinator Elizabeth Grigorian, the presentation was led by USC Shoah Foundation staff Manuk Avedikyan, Program Officer, and Sedda Antekelian, Education and Outreach Specialist. They spoke for two hours; the event was free and open to the public. It was the last in a series of talks at the library about Armenian archives around the world.

Around 80,000 people of Armenian descent call Glendale home, making it the largest Armenian community outside Armenia.

Avedikyan opened the presentation with the history of USC Shoah Foundation, the Visual History Archive, its partnership with the Armenian Film Foundation and its collection of over 300 audiovisual interviews of Armenian Genocide survivors, witnesses and scholars. He also spoke about the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, which enables scholars from around the world to do extensive academic research into the Visual History Archive.

Antekelian explained how testimony is used as a primary source in the classroom and how it is used to tell the story of the Armenian Genocide on IWitness, USC Shoah Foundation’s educational website. She provided an overview of IWitness and the IWitness Armenian Genocide Education program, which develops resources for teaching about the Armenian Genocide.

“The crowd asked insightful questions and shared that they believe in the power of education through testimony and that they are hopeful that more people will become aware of the Armenian Genocide and the history of the Armenian people, while also learning from its history and legacy,” Antekelian said.

After the presentation, several audience members came up to talk to Avedikyan and Antekelian, praising their work and encouraging them to share it with more Armenian communities.