Table Of ContentARMENIAN-CANADIAN WOMEN IN DIASPORA: THE ROLE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION IN (UP)ROOTED LIVES,
BURDENED SOULS, AND ENLIVENED SPIRITS
ARPI PANOSSIAN-MUTTART
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN EDUCATION
YORK UNIVERSITY
TORONTO, ONTARIO
September 2013
© Arpi Panossian-Muttart, 2013
ABSTRACT
This dissertation is a life history research-a collective process of remembering,·
telling, writing, and unravelling. The participants, including myself, are seven Armenian
women in Toronto and Montreal who have been educators in Armenian schools and/or in
Canadian Universities.
Participants have refashioned their lives as Armenian-Canadians and faced the
discomfort of living in displaced identities, the disconnect between self and communities,
and the ambivalence of belonging neither here nor there. Even though uprooted from
their birthplace and deracinated from their ancestral land, participants continue finding
ways to establish roots and to secure spaces within Canadian communities in their efforts
to renegotiate their identities as diasporans. In their community of learners and teachers,
they are resolute with their fragmented selves-multilocal, multilingual, hybrid. They
find a home in their hostland Canada and a spiritual homeland in Armenia.
The qualitative nature of this research allowed me to balance my dual roles as
researcher and participant. Life history research demanded complex and interconnected
relationships among the researcher, the participants, and the communities. It involved a
reflexive practice and a responsive engagement with and within the context of the research.
Interviews, group discussions, and autoethnographic writing were the methods I used to
gather data.
I conceptualized my findings within the theoretical framing of feminist
poststructural theory and diaspora concepts. I explored the following: Participants'
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motivation to pursue education in their mature years; the role of formal learning in
reconstructing uprooted lives and at the same time, renegotiating socialized and
historicized identities; the burden and the privilege of an inherited history, in particular
the history of the Armenian Genocide.
This is a project that finds significance not only in the struggles of displacement
and resettlement of Armenian women in Canada but also in the recalling, the reliving, and
the reconstructing of stories. It is an interpretive inquiry into the personal that stems from
and is shaped by individual, historical, social, economic, and political forces. Therefore, I
have addressed the context of telling, the spaces participants spoke from and about, the
communities they represented, the ideologies they promoted, and the silences they may
have maintained.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study would not have come to its fruition without the tender assistance of
my family, participants, friends, colleagues, committee, and examiners.
I thank my participants for their eloquent storytelling and keen observations.
You have taught me to listen, to be present, and to tell.
-
I thank Naomi Norquay for supervising my work so very thoughtfully. I am
grateful for her deep insights, wise questions, gentle assertiveness, and in particular, her
trust in me. You have honed my critical thinking and life writing skills.
I thank Esther Fine and Mario Di Paolantonio for being on my committee. I am
indebted to their attentive reading and grateful for the gentle and caring manner by which
they suggested revisions. You gave me confidence and expanded my analytical thinking
and manner of expression.
I thank Malcolm Blincow for accepting to be the internal-external examiner. I
am grateful for his keen observations and thoughtfully articulated remarks. It has been an
honour to learn from him through the years.
I thank Mary Beattie for joining us as the external-examiner. I accept her
attentive reading, perceptive remarks, and excellent suggestions with great humility. I am
honoured to have her support and grateful for her caring contributions.
I thank all those who journeyed with me and listened to my story in classrooms,
in hallways, in lounges, and during long nature walks. I appreciate your friendship and
collegial interest in my work.
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I thank my parents, Stepan and Osanna for their avant-garde thinking, servitude,
and unconditional love for family and community. I have learned tenacity from my eldest
brother As bed. My brother Raffi' s art and creativity continue to motivate me. My
youngest brother Razinik inspires me and challenges me to think "beyond the
borders," his unwavering support and encouragement continue to motivate me to seek
more knowledge. I thank my husband Daved for bringing me down to earth ever so
'
gently and for helping me to think pragmatically. He has been my number one fan and
supporter in this intellectual quest. I thank my daughter Ani for her observant eyes,
inquisitive mind, and sharp editing skills. And finally, I thank my. son Matthew for
keeping me young and alert. You have all taught me to love and to care, to be strong,
courageous, resilient, and yes, stubborn - stubborn enough to complete this dissertation.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. iv
MAPS ................................................................................................................................. vi
IMAGES ........................................................................................................................... xiv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER TWO: CONTEXT, FRAME, AND TEXT ..................................................... 12
FEMINIST PEDAGOGY ...................................................................................................... 15
VOICES OF THE COLLECTIVE: ARMENIANS IN DIASPORA ..... ;. ......................................... 18
Diasporan Identity Markers .................................................................................... 18
Genocide as Identity Marker .................................................................................. 22
Western and Eastern Armenians ............................................................................ 25
The Language ofDiaspora ..................................................................................... 29
AN ANNOTATION ............................................................................................................ 34
CHAPTER THREE: LIFE HISTORY RESEARCH WITH A GROUP OF SEVEN ...... .40
ETHICAL CARE OF PARTICIPANTS ............................................................ ~ ...................... 41
Profile of Participants ............................................................................................. 42
Rationale for Choice of Participants ..................................................................... .44
RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE ................................................................................................. 4 7
METHODS IN LIFE HISTORY RESEARCH .......................................................................... 57
Autoethnography: Researcher's Position ............................. ;. ................................ 60
Oral History: Production of Memory ..................................................................... 65
Particular Discourses That Shape My Oral History ............................................... 71
Collective Memory in Group Discussions ............................................................. 74
REFLEXIVE, REFLECTIVE, RESPONSIVE REWRITING: WRITING FOR DISCOVERY ............. 77
VI
Challenges in Writing ............................................................................................ 90
DATA COLLECTION: WHERE AND How .......................................................................... 93
Data Analysis: Interviews, Group Discussions, and Writing ................................. 99
ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS .................................................................................. 107
ADDITIONAL REMARKS ................................................................................................. 110
CHAPTER FOUR: LIVES INTERRUPTED, (UP)ROOTED, (RE)NEGOTIATED ..... 112
DYNAMICS OF DIASPORA .............................................................................................. 114
Exiles Exiled in Exile ........................................................... ·. ............................... 123
Others and Outsiders in Their Own Community ................................................. 130
Fragmented Identities ........................................................................................... 138
HISTORICITY, CONNECTIVITY, GENERATIVITY: THE BURDEN ...................................... 142
Historicity: The Interpreted and the Articulated Past .......................................... 143
Connectivity: The Need to Tell for Continuity .................................................... 148
The Burden: Genocide and Generativity .............................................................. 153
Is It Home, Homeland, Fatherland, or Motherland? ............................................ 166
ADDITIONAL REMARKS ................................................................................................. 184
CHAPTER FIVE: EDUCATION FOR IDENTITY NEGOTIATIONS .......................... 186
EDUCATION FOR BUILDING COMMUNITY ...................................................................... 191
EDUCATION FOR PERSONAL INTEREST AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH ........................... 199
Learning in Mid-Life ............................................................................................ 205
EDUCATION FOR SELF-CHANGE .................................................................................... 206
EDUCATION FOR INTELLECTUAL RESPONSIBILITY ........................................................ 214
ADDITIONAL REMARKS ................................................................................................. 225
· ..
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CHAPTER SIX: REVISITING DISCUSSIONS AND OFFERING CRITIQUES .......... 226
THEORY AND METHODOLOGY REVISITED .................................... : ................................ 226
EDUCATION: AN IDENTITY MARKER ............................................................................. 229
DIASPORA ISSUES CONTINUED ...................................................................................... 231
IDENTITY IN FLUX ......................................................................................................... 234
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS .......................................................................................... 236
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. 244
APPENDIX A: TRANSLITERATION .................................................................................. 244
APPENDIX B-1: TIME-LINE HISTORY OF ARMENIA ........................................................ 245
APPENDIX B-2: HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF KESSAB ..................................................... 247
APPENDIX C: INFORMED CONSENT LETTER .................................................................. 249
APPENDIX D: SAMPLE EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH PARTICIPANTS ........................ 251
APPENDIX E: TENTATIVE DISCUSSION THEMES ............................................................ 254
APPENDIX F: RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................. 255
APPENDIX G: RECIPES ................................................................................................... 256
APPENDIX H: A REFLECTIVE WRITING ......................................................................... 257
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 258
Vlll
GEORGIA
Sivas
•
T U R K E Y
Caesarea•
200 miles
0
Map of the Old World showing current political boundaries and some centres referred to in the text. Courtesy Department
of Geography, University of Toronto. Cartographer, Jane Davie. (From Kaprielian-Churchill, 2005).
- ---- --------------------
----
RUSSIA
CJ Empire of Tigranes the Great (c. 70 B.C.)
r
~-r:l Cilician Armenia (Kilikia) (1080-1375)
CJ The First Armenian Republic (28.v.18 - 2.xii.20)
CJ The Second & third Armenian Republics (since 1921)
o o o o 0 0 Historic armenia
Wilsonian Armenia (proposed, 1920, and including
the first Republic)
Anatolian Peninsula E =C0.
f..l). .,I. .
0
~
<!>. ~[) .>.,
a
oa ~
Q~ .=~... .
Mediterranean Se~
IRAN
c~
Scale N
0 300 km.
I
I I I I
0 100 200 300 mi. I
Hewsen, R.H. (2001). Armenia: A historical atlas. Cartographer in Chief, Christopher C. Salvatico. Chicago:
University of Chicago.
