Modern Assyrian language, History of the New Assyria.

At this third international Congress the experts will address two main themes: Modern Assyrian language, History of the New Assyria.

The aim of this Congress is to continue working in the scientific field that the Assyrian people need most:

  • Education in its linguistic,
  • historical aspects and Identity.

The Nineveh Chair has these areas as the main pillars of its research initiative. Invited experts in the mentioned fields are chosen to discuss and present the topics covered in the Programme.

Participants will have the opportunity to attend lectures and panel discussions that will shed much light on the main topics of the conference. We aim to provide an innovative insight into historical, and socio-linguistic aspects of the current Assyrian people.

The venue for the congress is the National Assembly, Senate and AACF in Paris. Within these initiatives, the Nineveh Academic Chair aims to promote the study of the Assyrian linguistic, historical and cultural legacy among the Assyrian communities. Below, we provide you with detailed information about the Programme of the Congress.

Programme

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09:30-13:30 Registration | Shawtaputa Building: Association des Assyro Chaldéens en France (AACF), 21 rue de la Marlière Sarcelles.
09:30-10:30 Inauguration of Nineveh Academic Chair Congress | Shawtaputa Building: Association des Assyro-Chaldéens en France (AACF).
Message of the Rector for the conference
Message of the Dean of the Faculty of Philology AACF Representatives
Efrem Yildiz, President of Nineveh Academic Chair: Challenges and needs for the development of Modern Assyrian Language.
10:30-11:00 Coffee break
11:00-11:45 Conference: Moderator: Efrem Yildiz| Shawtaputa Main Hall.
Sargon Donabed The birth and develop of Assyrian studies past and present.
11:40-12:30 Conference: Moderator: Sargon Donabed Shawtaputa Main Hall.
Susan Yousif Khoshabah. PHD at University of Salamanca.
12:30-13:15 Conference | Moderator: Sargon Hasso| Shawtaputa Main Hall.
Samir Khoshaba. Linnaeus University. Bolts, nuts, and joints in Assyrian Language.
13:15-15:00 ASSYRIAN WINE Welcome Lunch
15:15-17:00 Bus to French Senate: 15 Rue de Vaugirard/Paris.
17:00-17:45 Conference | Moderator: Efrem Yildiz | Senate Hall.
Önver Çetrez, Uppsala University. Existential conflicts among Assyrian refugees: Resilience and coping in the midst of crises.
17:45-18:45 Conference: Moderator: Sargon Donabed| Senate Hall.
Abdulmesih BarAbraham Sanharib Balley’s Role in the Early Assyrian Unity and Revival Movement.
Abboud Zeitoune. The Intibah-Society 1908-1914 in upper Mesopotamia. The first secular Institution among Assyrians.
19:30-21:30 DINNER
09:30-12:30 Registration | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
09:30-10:15 Conference | Moderator: Efrem Yildiz. The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Shabo Talay, Freie Berlin University. Surit and Surayt – commonalities and differences and the idea of one national language.
10:15-11:00 Conference | Moderator: Sargon Donabed. The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Sargon Hasso, Illinois Institute of Technology. Digitization and Preservation of Modern Assyrian Texts: Challenges of Low Resource Languages through Advanced Technological Solutions.
11:00-11:30 Coffee break.
11:30-12:15 Conference | Moderator: Efrem Yildiz | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Geoffrey Khan, University of Cambridge. The Classification of the Modern Assyrian Neo-Aramaic dialects.
13:00-15:00 LUNCH.
15:00-15:45 Conference | Moderator: Robin Bet-Shmuel | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Edmound Kabrial: The derivation of nouns from verb roots and the mobile application that assists users in generating names from verb roots.
15:45-16:30 Conference | Moderator: Samir Khoshaba | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Robin Bet-Shmuel, Baghdad Academy. Geography and History in the Contemporary Assyrian Mind.
16:30-17:15 Conference: Moderator: Shabo Talay | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Joseph Alichoran. Sorbonne University. Quelques éléments historiques sur le village de Gaznagh ou Gazza d-Noh (Le‘‘Trésor de Noé’’), dans les monts Hakkâri (sud-est de la Turquie).
17:15-17:45 Coffe Break
17:45-18:30 Conference | Moderator: Önver Çetrez | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Lolita Emmanuel. University of Sydney. Performing Assyrianness: Creative negotiations of rúḥā and ṭā‘mā in Assyrian music performance.
18:30-19:15 Conference: Moderator: Lolita Emmanuel and Efrem Yildiz | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Nahreen Odisho, Assyrian Royal Clothing Tradition.
19:15-20:00 Conference | Moderator: Anahit Khosroeva and Efrem Yildiz | The Atrium Hotel & Conference Centre Paris.
Round Table: Modern Assyrian Language and Current Challenges.
20:00-21:30 DINNER.
08:00-12:00 Visit to the LOUVRE MUSEUM.
12:00-13:00 LUNCH.
13:00-14:00 French Government Deputies, Mrs. Anne-Laure Blin and Mr. François Pupponi.
NAC President, Efrem Yildiz
AACF Representatives
(Bus to Assemblée Nationale 126 Rue de l’université 75007 PARIS)
14:00-15:45 Conference: Moderator: Efrem Yildiz |Assemblée Nationale Hall.
Joseph Yacoub : University of Lyon. La France et les Assyro-Chaldéens à travers les âges.
15:45-16:30 Conference: Moderator: Shabo Talay | Assemblée Nationale Hall.
Michael Abdalla: University of Poznan "Nisibis and its Assyrian population from the mid-19th century to 1930.
16:30-17:15 Conference: Moderator: Sargon Donabed | Assemblée Nationale Hall.
Anahit Khosroeva. Harvard University: “Archival Resources on Assyrians at the National Archive of Armenia”.
17:15-18:00 Conference: Moderator: Önver Çetrez | Assemblée Nationale Hall.
Savina Dawood: Empowering Assyrian Youth through Educational Programs.
18:00-19:30 Bus to the Concert Hall.
20:00-22:30 GALA DINNER AND CONCERT BY KENNARA GROUP.

Prof. Sargon Donabed

Speach title: The birth and develop of Assyrian studies past and present.

Areas of Expertise: Assyrian Studies; Indigenous Studies in the Middle East; Eastern Christianity; Myth and Folklore Studies; Comparative Religion; Immigration History; Animal Studies/Anthrozoology; Diaspora Studies; Cultural Heritage.

Education: Ph.D. University of Toronto, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations  |  B.A. Stonehill College; History/Religious Studies  |  MS Canisius College; Anthrozoology (Animal Studies)

Professor Donabed completed his undergraduate degree at Stonehill College He has taught both middle school and high school (including special education) while studying ancient languages at Hellenic College in Brookline, Mass. He completed his MA and PhD in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. He also holds an MS in Anthrozoology/Animal Studies from Canisius College and is a longtime animal shelter volunteer.

Prof. Samir Khoshaba

Speach title: Bolts, nuts, and joints in Assyrian Language.

Prof. Önver Çetrez

Speach title: Existential conflicts among Assyrian refugees: Resilience and coping in the midst of crises.

I work as professor in Psychology of Religion, Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University. In 2005 I defended my doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University, focusing on identity and ritualization among Assyrian youth and adults in Sweden.

During 2017-2021 I was the co-coordinator and PI for the Horizon2020 project RESPOND – Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond (www.respondmigration.com).

Abdulmesih BarAbraham

Speach title: Sanharib Balley’s Role in the Early Assyrian Unity and Revival Movement.

Abdulmesih BarAbraham is native of Midyat and migrated in the course of family reunification as a young teenager 1967 to Germany, where he completed his secondary education and high school. He has a Master of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Erlangen/Nürnberg., where he gained knowledge in Near Eastern history and languages (Syriac, Turkish and Arabic).

From 1979 to 1983, he was the 1st state certified interpreter for modern Assyrian-Aramaic language to translate Asylum appeals at Germany’s Central Emigration Office in Zirndorf near Nürnberg; he translated more than 2,000 cases. In his professional career he worked for an international German Corporation in Munich, Germany and Santa Clara, California in different management positions.

As an independent researcher he has published numerous articles including book chapters in different languages on Assyrian related topics, such as the minority situation in the Middle East, genocide, migration, and diaspora.

Among others, he is the author of “Turkey’s Key Arguments in Denying the Assyrian Genocide,” in David Gaunt et. al. (Eds.), Let Them Not Return (New York: Berghahn Books, 2017); and (with Jan Bet-Sawoce), “Repression, Discrimination, Assimilation, and Displacement of East and West Assyrians in the Turkish Republic,” in Fikret Başkaya and Sait Çetinoglu (Eds.), Minorities in Turkey (Ankara: Özgür Universite Kitaplığı [Resmi Tarih Tartışmaları], 2009). He is also the author of “Safeguarding the Cross: Emergence of Christian Militias in Iraq and Syria,” in Andreas Schmoller (Ed.), Middle Eastern Christians and Europe – Historical Legacies and Present Challenges (Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2018). Abdulmesih is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of both, the Yoken-bar-Yoken Foundation and Mor Afrem Foundation, Germany. He is also the secretary of the Suryoye Theological Seminary in Salzburg, Austria.

Abboud Zeitoune

Speach title: The Intibah-Society 1908-1914 in upper Mesopotamia. The first
secular Institution among Assyrians.

Born in Qamishli in 1970, and in 1975 moved with my family to Lebanon as my father was working in Beirut, and enrolled at the “Taw Mim Simkat” High School, and there I learned to read and write Syriac.

Because of the Lebanese civil war the family was forced to immigrate to Germany in 1984. In Germany I continued my studies and graduated from University of Trade and Economics in 1996, and now I am working for an international rail freight company (DB Cargo) as Compliance Manager.

Worked in Assyrian national field, and became a member of many organizations in Germany, including the Assyrian Beth-Nahrin culture and sport association in Wiesbaden, and a long membership in the Assyrian Democratic Organization.

From 1987 I particpated in regular activities, like festivals, lectures and meetings of the Assyrian Beth-Nahrin association in Wiesbaden. There I was responsible for several tasks (such as leader of youth group and university graduates group). I was elected as chairman of this association for 3 periods (2000-2001 and 2008-2012). Since 2008 I am also chairman of the Mor Afrem Foundation (established by Dr. Samir Afram), which is a charity organization and support Assyrian project around the world.

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Our Sponsors

Meet the sponsors of the 3rd Nineveh International Conference.