Armenian News Network / Groong

 

Conversations on Groong: The Armenian Diaspora Survey

 

ANN/Groong

May 21, 2022

Guests

     Ayda Erbal

     Hratch Tchilingirian

Host

     Asbed Bedrossian

Introduction

 

Hello and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong, I’m Asbed Bedrossian.

 

This episode was recorded on Friday, May 20, 2022.

 

The Armenian DIaspora Survey

Overview

 

In this Conversations on Groong episode, we’ll be talking about the Armenian Diaspora Survey (ADS) which has recently been launched in the US and in Ontario, Canada, a survey that is initiated and funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and is being administered by the Armenian Institute in London.

 

Guests


To talk about this survey, we are joined by:

 

Ayda Erbal, who is an adjunct instructor of political science at New York University, She is the Survey Manager in the New York/New Jersey region and leading the social media campaign for the survey.

 

And

 

Dr. Hratch Tchilingirian, a sociologist, who is the Director of the Armenian Diaspora Survey project. He is Associate of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford in the UK.


Discussion

 

The survey Armenian Survey Project - ArmenianDiasporaSurvey.com - has been around since at least 2018, and has run successfully in a number of countries and cities like Boston, Pasadena, and then in 2019 in Lebanon, Argentina, etc.

 

Sponsor & Admin Team

 

Can you tell us why the Gulbenkian Foundation is sponsoring this research project to survey the Armenian Diaspora?

 

How did it go in the first phases, 2018, 2019, and so on?

 

Methodology

 

Can you talk a little bit about the methodology of the survey?

      How do you assure that for each region you have a cohort that’s representative of the community?

      I noted that on the website you say that you don’t ask for any personal information, and you have also posted a privacy policy. How do you make sure the responses are authentic (not fake)?

      Why don’t you survey people under 18 years of age?

      Do you tailor the survey for each region?

      Do you strive for a specific error margin?

 

About the Survey

 

      Can you tell us what kind of questions you ask in the survey? Why?

      How many questions?

      How long do you think it’ll take on the average?

      What are the regions covered in the current phase of the project?

      What are the timetable and deadlines of the current phase?

      What needs to happen for you to consider this phase a success?

 

Uses

 

I noted that the survey team does not use the survey for policy or other uses. I assume then that you are running the survey in as objective a manner as possible, and then the data is made available for scholars to mine according to their research needs?

      Can you tell us who can have access to the data?

      What format is it in,  like SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics, or some relational database?

      Have the previous results been used by researchers to date?

      How? With what results?

 

Survey Results to Date

 

Do you have some facts that you have gleaned from some of the communities already surveyed?

 

Survey Objectives

 

Tell me, what’s in it for me with these surveys? How are they going to provide insight into Armenians around the globe, in a manner that will tangibly improve our lot as Armenians? What’s the value proposition?

 

Is there a phase after the majority of the Diaspora communities to survey Armenia and Artsakh?

      Do you consider communities like Artsakh and Javakhk, Turkey, to be “diaspora” communities?

 

We did not get to talk about many of the topics above, and maybe we will come back in 5-6 weeks and do an update.

Wrap-up

 

That concludes this Conversations On Groong episode. As always we invite your feedback, Thanks to Laura Osborn for the music on our podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel on YouTube, Like our pages and follow us on Twitter. On behalf of everyone in this episode, we wish you a good week, thanks for listening and we’ll talk to you soon.

 

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Keywords

Ayda Erbal, Hratch Tchilingirian, Armenian Diaspora Survey, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, University of Oxford, New York University, United States of America, Ontario Canada,