This thesis examines the role of Armenian community centres, in relation to the local dwelling place of Montreal, the distant homeland, and the rest of the Armenian diaspora. Due to the staggering increase in migration and to the proliferation of transnational flows throughout the globe, our conception of home has substantially changed. Thus, what motivates immigrants to build and attend "diasporic dwellings" representative of their ethnicity in their new dwelling places? By describing the characteristics of the two largest Armenian community centres in Montreal, (the Armenian Community Centre and the ABGU Centre), I analyse how these mediated social spaces embody elements that represent a distant home, a diaspora, and the local dwelling place---complete with organizations, symbols, imagery, iconography, and language. Utilizing the methodology of participant observation and through conducting interviews, I demonstrate how members of the Armenian community living in Montreal, negotiate their multiple cultural identities through their involvement with Armenian community centres. Moreover, I discuss how the community centres articulate a collective memory in the present within Montreal's public sphere.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.83192 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Manjikian, Lalai |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Art History and Communication Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002270876, proquestno: AAIMR22608, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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