Guest Lecture | Heritage Forensics: Culture on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict

This talk introduces the concept of heritage forensics, a framework for studying abuses of cultural heritage in contexts of conflict, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. Drawing on the new co-authored volume, Heritage Forensics: Cultural on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict, the presentation examines how cultural sites became entangled in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh during the interwar period (1994-2020). The talk considers how satellite-based heritage forensics is being deployed prospectively, to monitor hundreds of Armenian sites in Karabakh following Azerbaijan's 2023 takeover of the region and the displacement of its Armenian population. In doing so, it asks: how can satellite-based monitoring function as a form of "counter-forensics," turning surveillance technologies developed for military purposes back on the state? Can heritage forensics move us beyond retrospective documentation to actively deter erasure and support truth, reconciliation, and accountability wherever cultural heritage is at stake?

Lori Khatchadourian is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology at Cornell University, and co-founder and co-director of Caucasus Heritage Watch. She currently serves as Director of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies. Khatchadourian’s research spans the fields of archaeology, social anthropology, and heritage studies, with a particular focus on Armenia, the wider South Caucasus, and neighboring regions. Current projects explore the archaeology of modernity, including problems of genocide, deindustrialization, and the entanglements of cultural heritage and war. She is the co-author of Heritage Forensics: Culture on the Front Lines of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict (Cornell, 2026) and author of Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires (UC Press, 2016). She is also co-editor of Rethinking Empire: Materiality, Metaphysics, and Imperial Politics (SAR, 2026) and Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics: The Archaeology of Eurasia (2017).

https://umich.zoom.us/j/99311308952

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange. Contact: armenianstudies@umich.edu