Aram Arkun
Normally Dr. Erna Manea Shirinian spends the first
half of her workday as a full professor of history at Yerevan State
University and then goes in the afternoon to Yerevan’s Mesrop Mashtots
Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (“Matenadaran”), where she is head of
the department concerned with researching and editing ancient Armenian
texts. Fortunately for the Mirror, she was in Boston a few
months ago, during the spring, and spoke a little about the state of
scholarly affairs in Armenia as well as a conference she was organizing
on Tayk.
Born in Akhalkalak, Georgia, Dr. Shirinian began her education in
Armenia. Her father did not want her to leave the country, but as a good
student, she was sent by her teacher to Russia to learn classical
literature and translation. Most of the other students did not continue
in academia. When she returned, she was told she could go to specialize
in Byzantine Studies in Moscow.
