armenian study Archives

Houri Berberian (Photo: UCI Armenian Studies School of Humanities)

Houri Berberian joins UCI’s School of Humanities as Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies

Berberian to lead development of integrated study of Armenians and Armenia at UCI

IRVINE, California: September 29, 2016 – After an extensive national search, the University of California, Irvine has selected Houri Berberian for its Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies. Vahe and Armine Meghrouni, ardent supporters of the UCI School of Humanities, with additional backing from the local Armenian-American community, established the $2M chair in 2014 with a $500,000 match from the UC Office of the President. The endowed chair provides a dedicated source of funds, in perpetuity, for Berberian’s scholarly activities as well as support for graduate student fellowships.

“We are thrilled to have Houri Berberian join us as the Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies and deeply grateful to the Meghrouni family for making this position possible,” said Georges Van Den Abbeele, dean of the UCI School of Humanities. “Armenia’s rich and complex 3,000-year history and culture, both in its homeland and diaspora, provides an incredible opportunity for UCI’s students to develop a meaningful and critically-global perspective.”

Berberian joins UCI from California State University, Long Beach, where she was a professor of Middle Eastern history and director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program. Berberian’s research interests lie in Iran, specifically Armenian participation in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, which is the topic of her first book. Her interests also include Iranian-Armenian women’s education and activism and issues of Iranian-Armenian identity and memory. Her current project is a connected-histories approach to the early twentieth-century revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman empires explored through the circulation of Armenian revolutionaries, arms, print, and global ideologies like constitutionalism and socialism. Berberian will work closely with the UCI School of Humanities’ faculty and lecturers in Middle and Near East studies as well as Russian and Soviet studies to develop a comprehensive approach to the study of Armenian history, tradition and culture.

“I am both honored and excited to join UCI as a professor in the Department of History and Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair. I envision developing the Armenian Studies Program into a forward-looking and dynamic center for both undergraduate and graduate training in the field,” said Berberian. “I am particularly eager to collaborate with my colleagues in adjacent fields at UCI and other UC campuses as well as with other Armenian Studies Programs. I very much look forward to contributing to the intellectual and cultural life of the wider community through organizing public events, including lecture and academic conferences.”

Studies in Armenia first began at UCI in 2007 with support and guidance from forward-thinking community member Sylvie Tertzakian, and under the leadership of UCI history professor and Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies and Culture Touraj Daryaee. In 2013, the Meghrounis endowed the Vahe and Armine Meghrouni Lecture Series, a quarterly lecture series that brings Armenian historical and cultural topics of interest to all in the broader Orange County community.

Drs. Armine and Vahe Meghrouni were born in America of Armenian parents, but in their public schooling they found it difficult to learn about their heritage. “Being in an imperfect world, we experienced being anonymous as Armenians. We, in our formal education, could find little about our identity as descendants of Armenians, a people with a continuous history for three millennia,” said Vahe Meghrouni.

“While other ancient civilizations have ceased to exist, Armenians remain worldwide, despite the misfortune that almost every historic invader in history passed through and occupied their homelands. The Armenians maintained their culture as well as their language and contributed expertise in diverse spheres of human endeavors. They have sustained an accomplished presence in the regimes resulting from foreign invasions as well as in an ensuing Armenian diaspora,” Meghrouni said. “Because the history is so complex and long, the Armenian Studies Program at UC Irvine must do a great amount of work in educating present-day society as to who Armenians are and what the culture represents. We give thanks to UCI and the School of Humanities for their commitment in this groundbreaking effort. As we look forward to great success of Armenian studies under her leadership, we are grateful to have Houri Berberian join UCI as the Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair In Armenian Studies.”

For more information on Armenian studies at UCI, please visit http://humanities.uci.edu/armenianstudies/

Salpi Ghazarian, a senior nonprofit and education sector professional, will lead USC Dornsife’s Institute of Armenian Studies. Armenian studies scholars Richard Antaramian and Richard Hovannisian will bring their expertise to the institute as affiliated faculty.

LOS ANGELES—On August 14, the University of Southern California’s Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences Dean Steve Kay announced the appointment of Salpi Ghazarian as director of USC Dornsife’s Institute of Armenian Studies (IAS) at a gathering of the IAS leadership council and supporters. In addition, Kay appointed Armenian studies scholars Richard Antaramian as the Turpanjian Early Career Chair in Contemporary Armenian Studies and assistant professor of history, and Richard Hovannisian as adjunct professor of history.

Established in 2005 as part of the long partnership between USC and the Armenian community, the institute is structured as a multidisciplinary center of learning and research.

Ghazarian begins her post on Aug. 18. She arrives from the think-tank and advocacy group Civilitas Foundation, where she was founding director. Managing a team of 60 professional and support staff, Ghazarian helped introduce a new culture of civic activism to Armenia’s struggling democracy by establishing and expanding the foundation’s programming to include civil society strengthening, Internet media, and research and publishing.

Antaramian will be the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Early Career Chair in Contemporary Armenian Studies. He brings with him a vast knowledge of Armenian history and culture. He was recently awarded his Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan with a dissertation titled: “In Subversive Service of the Sublime State: Tanzimat, Consolidating Jurisdiction, and Armenian Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1844–1896.”

Hovannisian will take a leading role in advising USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education in its efforts to integrate nearly 400 interviews of Armenian Genocide survivors into its Visual History Archive, a collection of 53,000 testimonies of the Holocaust and other genocides.

The Armenian interviews were recently given to the USC Shoah Foundation by the Armenian Film Foundation, and represent the work of the late Dr. J. Michael Hagopian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who filmed the interviews in 16mm between 1968 and 2004. Testimonies from the collection will begin to be integrated into the Visual History Archive by April 24, 2015, the centennial of the historic event.

Hovannisian is a Guggenheim Fellow and has received many honors for his scholarship, civic activities and advancement of Armenian studies. He is also the cofounder and three-time president of the Society for Armenian Studies.

“Salpi Ghazarian has a stellar background — both personally and professionally — to lead USC Dornsife’s Institute of Armenian Studies,” Kay said. “Every year there is an average of up to 1,000 Armenian Trojan students. Under Salpi’s direction and with the expertise of Richard Hovannisian and Richard Antaramian, the institute will continue to play an integral role in our mission to provide students and researchers with the tools they need for a comprehensive, interdisciplinary understanding of Armenia’s past, present and evolving future.”

Since its founding in 1880, USC has educated thousands of Armenian Americans who have gone on to distinguished careers in business, government, the arts and the professions. The institute offers courses in Armenian studies and has organized major community events, international conferences, symposia, exhibits, and concerts. On Sept. 28, 2014, the institute’s achievements will be honored with an anniversary gala in Los Angeles.

Charles Ghailian, chair of the institute’s Leadership Council noted how fitting it is that these appointments come just as the institute is preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

“The Leadership Council is grateful for the work of all those who supported, served and invested in the institute in its first decade, and now, continuing the partnership between the university and the Armenian community, we are committed to a new decade of innovative programming,” Ghailian said “We welcome Richard Antaramian, Salpi Ghazarian, and of course Richard Hovannisian, and on Sept. 28 we will focus on that future.”

About the USC Institute of Armenian Studies: Established in 2005, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies supports multidisciplinary scholarship to re-define, explore and study the complex issues that make up the contemporary Armenian experience — from post-Genocide to the developing Republic of Armenia to the evolving Diaspora. The institute encourages research, publications and public service, and benefits from communication technologies that link together the global academic and Armenian communities.

About USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is the heart of the university. The largest, oldest and most diverse of USC’s 19 schools, USC Dornsife is composed of more than 30 academic departments and dozens of research centers and institutes. USC Dornsife is home to approximately 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 750 faculty members with expertise across the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

Source: asbarez

University of California, Irvine: Selects Houri Berberian as Chair of Armenian Studies

California USC Dean Appoints New Armenian Institute Director and Faculty