Shaping Nations: Education, Media, Identity, and Politics in the Late Imperial and Early Soviet Caucasus

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

This panel examines the intersection of education, media, identity formation, and political context in the Caucasus during the late imperial period. By focusing on history textbooks and print media, it explores how national identities were constructed, negotiated, and contested in response to shifting socio-political environments.
The presentations address a range of themes, including strategies for constructing national identities through textbooks (from the late Ottoman and Russian imperial periods) and imperial print media. This discussion contributes to broader conversations on the politics of history education, the role of textbooks and print media in shaping national and imperial consciousness in the context of the transforming socio-political landscape.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Timothy K. Blauvelt, American Councils for International Education / Ilia State U (Georgia)

Papers

• Bridging Identities: The Techniques of Promoting National Identity through Armenian History Textbooks in the Context of Loyalty to the Ottoman Empire - Anahit Kartashyan, Yerevan State U (Armenia)

• Constructing Armenia and Armenians: History Textbooks for Armenian Parochial and Russian Schools in the Late Imperial Period - Naira E Sahakyan, American U Armenia (Armenia)

• Print Media and the Manipulation of Identity in the Early Twentieth-Century Caucasus - Sarah Elizabeth Slye, Independent Scholar

• The Power of the Press: The Educational Influence of Armenian Media in the Early 20th Century - Gayane F Torosyan, SUNY Oneonta

Discussant

• Arseniy Kumankov, U of Mainz (Germany)