Language Attitudes, Collective Memory and (Trans)National Identity Construction Among the Armenian Diaspora in Bulgaria

Giustina Selvelli is a postdoctoral researcher in anthropology and sociolinguistics based at the University of Ljubljana. Her research interests focus on writing systems and ethnolinguistic minorities in the wide Southeast European space. She has conducted fieldwork in Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia, and held research and teaching positions at the of the University of the Aegean in Mytilene, the University of Novi Sad, the University of Klagenfurt, Yildiz Technical University of Istanbul, the University of Nova Gorica and University Ca’ Foscari of Venice.

• Preface – Foreword by Boghos Levon Zekiyan – Acknowledgments – 1. Introduction: Symbols and Memory in the Armenian Diaspora – 2. History of the Armenian Diaspora of Plovdiv – 3. Language as an Idealized Space of Belonging – 4. The Symbolic Cultivation of Identity in Education – 5. The AGBU Initiatives in Support of Language and Memory – 6. The Genocide and the Lost Homeland in the Local Literature – 7. The Armenian Linguistic Landscapes of Plovdiv – 8. Conclusions: Multiple Belongings and New Diaspora Dynamics – Bibliography – Illustrations