SYDNEY: The Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (AIHGS) has announced that Dr. Bruce Scates will keynote the 2025 Armenian Genocide Commemorative Lecture, which will be held at the
Preston Stanley Room, NSW Parliament House on Thursday, 29 May 2025.
Since 1996, the Armenian Australian community has sponsored the commemorative lecture to express our gratitude to the NSW parliament for becoming the first legislature in Australia to recognise the 1915-1923 Armenian Genocide.
The event will comprise of a wreath-laying ceremony at the Armenian Genocide Memorial Khatchkar (cross-stone) located in parliament grounds, followed by Dr. Scates' keynote.
Please find below details for the event.
WREATH LAYING CEREMONY & PRAYER SERVICEDate: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Armenian Genocide ‘Khatchkar’ (Cross-Stone), Peace Garden, Level 9 NSW Parliament House
COMMEMORATIVE LECTUREDate: Thursday, 29 May 2025
Time: 7:45pm
Location: Preston Stanley Room, NSW Parliament House
Bruce Scates is a Professor of History at the ANU, a Fulbright Scholar and a Fellow of the Australian Academy for the Social Sciences . He is the recipient/co-recipient of University, State and National Awards for Teaching Excellence, and his many publications include Return to Gallipoli, A New Australia, the Cambridge History of the Shrine of Remembrance and Women and the Great War (co-authored with Raelene Frances). The last of these won the NSW Premier’s History Award.
Committed to communicating history to the widest possible audience, he devised a 12-part documentary series in collaboration with the National Museum of Australia and co-presents the same with his colleague from Monash University, Dr Susan Carland. He is a frequent contributor to writers’ festivals, history events and diverse public forums, a consultant to cultural institutions and his study of frontier violence was profiled in the first report of the Council for National Reconciliation.
His Annual Anzac Day broadcast began when the Covid pandemic saw a suspension of traditional services and has continued by public demand. The 2025 broadcast, featured on the ANU One Hundred Stories website, marked the 110th anniversary of both the Gallipoli Landings and the Armenian Genocide.
