The traces of the Armenian genocide on the bodies and memories of survivors

2025-11-21

Dr. Elyse Semerdjian is the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University.

Her book "Remnants: Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide" is particularly noteworthy for its innovative approach. By examining the stories of genocide survivors, with a special attention to the tattoos left on Armenian women, often forcibly applied as signs of ownership, possession, or cultural erasure, Dr. Semerjian transforms the body into an archive of trauma, resilience, and memory. Using the concept of “muscle memory,” she describes how generations of genocide survivors have silently borne the physical traces of violence without personally experiencing them.

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