UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ GOVERNING ARMENIA: THE POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT AND THE MAKING OF GLOBAL DIASPORA A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in FEMINIST STUDIES with emphases in POLITICS, CRITICAL RACE & ETHNIC STUDIES, and HISTORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Veronika Zablotsky June 2019 The Dissertation of Veronika Zablotsky is approved: _________________________________ Professor Gina Dent, chair _________________________________ Professor Banu Bargu _________________________________ Professor Mayanthi Fernando _________________________________ Professor David Kazanjian __________________________________ Lori G. Kletzer Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Veronika Zablotsky 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures iv Abstract v Acknowledgements vii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 The Making of Anglo-Armenian Law in Colonial India 50 CHAPTER 2 Adopting an Orphan-Nation: Armenian-Americans and the Geopolitics of Whiteness 118 CHAPTER 3 Emancipating “Woman-Nationals” in Early Soviet Armenia 212 CHAPTER 4 The Neoliberal Return of the National Enterprise: Global Diaspora in Post-Soviet Armenia 285 CONCLUSION 370 BIBLIOGRAPHY 386 iii List of Figures 1. Frontispiece, Vorogayt Parats, Madras, 1773/1788 101 2. Illustration of Aurora Mardiganian, “Like A Story in the Fairy Books,” The Washington Times, 1919 145 3. Cover image, The New Near East, New York, February 1923 148 4. Photo, Fridtjof Nansen in the Sardarabad Plain, 1926 175 5. “Matt. XIV. 16.,” Polygon orphanage, Alexandropol 189 6. “Near East Relief,” Sversky orphanage school, Alexandropol 190 7. Still image, Белое солнце пустыни (White Sun of the Desert), Mosfilm, 1972 238 8. Photo of a women’s workshop in Leninakan, Armenia, 1924 257 9. Illustration, “Justice,” Armenia’s Woman-Worker, No. 3, 1924 264 10. Photo, “Delegates’ Meeting in Ghurgughlu,” Armenia’s Woman-Worker, No. 5, 1924 265 11. Photo, Clara Zetkin at the Women’s Club in Tbilisi, Armenia’s Woman- Worker, No. 3, 1924 272 iv Abstract Governing Armenia: The Politics of Development and the Making of Global Diaspora Veronika Zablotsky This dissertation reconsiders the history of Armenian displacement from the standpoint of feminist and postcolonial theory. It investigates how colonial imaginaries of the Armenian nation were produced by trans-imperial entanglements between the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the North Atlantic since the early modern period in order to develop a postcolonial critique of neoliberal development in post-Soviet Armenia. Building on Edward Said’s framework of Orientalism, it argues that constructions of Armenians as representatives of the “West” in the “East” not only disarticulated Armenian claims to indigeneity in West Asia but also facilitated the global expansion of colonial logics of race and empire. The four chapters of this thesis deploy a mixed methodology that combines empirical and archival research with analyses of textual and visual materials to rethink the concept of emancipation in West Asia. They draw on a range of sources from novels and memoirs, including The Life and Adventures of Joseph Émïn (1792), to diplomatic reports, newspaper articles, and naturalization cases that determined whether Armenians were to be categorized as “free white persons” in the United States. Furthermore, they discuss the silent film Auction of Souls (1919) alongside images and photographs of Armenian orphans by Near East Relief, the writings of Fridtjof Nansen and Karen Jeppe, among others, as well as images and illustrations in an Armenian-language Soviet women’s journal. Based on open-ended interviews and v participant observation among diasporic reformers in post-Soviet Armenia’s non- governmental development sector, this thesis demonstrates that neoliberal development in post-Soviet Armenia actualizes colonial logics that preceded and exceded Soviet statecraft. By contrasting the early Soviet project of women’s emancipation with the inter-war mandate system in the Middle East, and colonial subjection by the English joint-stock corporation in South Asia, it develops an alternative account of globalization that offers a postcolonial approach to postsocialism and diaspora in West Asia. Drawing on critical race and political theory, it concludes that moving toward collective futures beyond the colonial gaze will require emancipation from the logic of development, or “developmentality,” as a rationality of government. vi Acknowledgements I want to thank my committee members at the University of California, Santa Cruz for their generous support and expert guidance. Professor Gina Dent, my dissertation advisor, has taught me more than I could ever thank her for. Her invaluable mentorship and patience made it possible to complete this ambitious project. I am grateful to Professor Mayanthi Fernando for the generosity and instructive criticism that have left a distinctive mark on my scholarship. Professor Banu Bargu’s incisive feedback has been absolutely critical during the writing stages of this project. I am grateful for her encouragement and support. I also want to thank Professor David Kazanjian at the University of Pennsylvania for his enthusiastic involvement since he joined my dissertation committee. His feedback has immeasurably enriched my thinking about Armenian diaspora and postcolonialism alike. I also want to thank Professor Wlad Godzich and Professor Ananya Roy for their advice and support as members of my qualifying committee. I am grateful to Professor Nathaniel Deutsch for his consistent interest in my work and professional development. Dr. Hasmig Seropian taught me the Armenian language. I am grateful to Professor Bettina Aptheker for her generous support of my fieldwork in 2016 through the University of California Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. I was able to complete this research due to funding support by the Department of Feminist Studies, the Division of Graduate Studies, and the Humanities Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I want to thank the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for awarding me a two-year dissertation fellowship in vii Armenian Studies. I am grateful to Taylor Y. Ainslie and Lisa Supple for their competent administrative support. I also want to thank the staff of UCSC Interlibrary Loan (ILL) at McHenry Library for truly going above and beyond to help me locate a number of rare sources. I want to thank Professor Alan Timberlake for welcoming me as a Visiting Scholar at the Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies of Columbia University. I am grateful to Professor Mana Kia for her reading recommendations and helpful comments. I also want to thank the other Visiting Scholars and Postdoctoral Fellows who have offered me feedback during my tenure at Columbia University, in particular Dr. Sami Al-Daghistani, Zhen Zhang, Dr. Rune Steenberg Reyhé, and Dr. Yana Gorokhovskaia. It was an honor to discuss my research with Professor Gayatri C. Spivak whose scholarship has profoundly shaped my work. I am grateful to Professor Bruce Grant and Professor Boris Groys at New York University for their generosity and helpful feedback. I thank Professor Gary Wilder and Professor David Joselit for welcoming me as a Dissertation Fellow of the Committee on Globalization & Social Change (CGSC) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Among all of the Faculty Fellows who have made these weekly seminars a personal highlight, I am particularly grateful to Professor Anthony Alessandrini for offering valuable feedback as a respondent, and to Professor Uday Mehta, Professor Herman Bennett, and Professor Mara de Gennaro for taking the time to meet with me individually. A number of colleagues and friends have made my time in New York City very special: Dr. Sónia Vaz Borges, Professor Ruthie Gilmore, viii Craig Gilmore, Dr. Mary N. Taylor, Deanna Cachoian-Schanz, Smaran Dayal, Maya Yu Zhang, Rima Hussein, Sara Hassani, and Cristiana Grigore. In the broader field of Armenian Studies, Professor Sebouh Aslanian, Professor Houri Berberian, Professor S. Peter Cowe, and Dr. Talar Chahinian have met with me to discuss my project. I am grateful to Professor Kathryn Babayan for inviting me to present at the International Graduate Student Workshop in Armenian Studies at the University of Michigan. It has been a pleasure to connect with other graduate students at the University of Michigan, in particular Dr. Neveser Köker and Jeremy Johnson. I am grateful to Salpi Ghazarian for inviting me to participate in the first Innovate Armenia Graduate Retreat of the University of Southern California Institute of Armenian Studies. Professor Madina Tlostanova made it feel possible to pursue the question of postcolonialism in Armenia. I thank her for her scholarship and collegiality. I am grateful for the solidarity of Dr. Anna Elena Torres and Saira K. Zuberi. Spirited exchanges with Dr. Tamar Shirinian have inspired me since we first met around a Yerevan kitchen table in 2013. Numerous interesting conversations on all of these occasions have provided me with a crucial sense of context and intellectual community. In Armenia, many interlocutors have crossed my path and influenced the direction of this project. I am grateful to faculty and staff who have welcomed me as a Research Fellow in the Political Science and International Relations Program at the American University of Armenia. I want to thank the librarians of the National