Genocide Scholar Vahakn Dadrian Passes Away

Prof. Bedross Der Matossian, president of the Society for Armenian Studies, has reported the sad news of the passing of the preeminent scholar of the Armenian Genocide Prof. Vahakn N. Dadrian on August 2, 2019, at the age of ninety-three, in Geneseo, New York.

Dadrian was the founder of the field of Armenian Genocide Studies and one of founders of the field of Comparative Genocide Studies. He was born in Istanbul on May 26, 1926. After studying mathematics at the University of Berlin, he pursued Philosophy at the University of Vienna, and later, International Law at the University of Zürich. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. From 1970-1991 he was a professor of Sociology at the State University of New York-College at Geneseo.

In 1999 he joined the Academic Board of Directors of the Zoryan Institute. Since then he served as the Director of Genocide Research and oversaw some of the Institute’s most important projects. He was the author of more than 10 books and 100 articles the most important of which was The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus (Berghahn, 2019). His books and articles have been translated into more than 10 languages.

For a bibliography of his works see: https://zoryaninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Vahakn-N.-Dadrian-Bibliography-of-Published-Works-2016_08_25-18_41_10-UTC.pdf

Dadrian was the recipient of many prestigious grants and honorary awards including but not limited to the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation grant, the Khorentazi Medal from the Republic of Armenia, an Honorary Doctorate degree from the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, and the Mesorb Mashdots Medal from the Holy See of Cilicia.