NAASR Announces Winners of 2020 Sona Aronian Armenian Studies Book Prizes

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies: Prof. Houri Berberian for the monograph Roving Revolutionaries: Armenians and the Connected Revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman Worlds (University of California Press) and Dr. Lou Ann Matossian, Dr. Vartan Matiossian, and the late Aris Sevag for the translation of Bedros Keljik’s Armenian-American Sketches (The Armenian Studies Series of the Press at California State University, Fresno). The 2020 awards are for books with a 2019 publication date.

Second Feminist Armenian Studies Workshop Held at UCI

Sona Zeitlian

 

Following the successful launching of the Annual Feminist Armenian Studies Workshop in 2017 at MIT, a second two-day Workshop was organized. The workshop, titled Gendering Resistance and Revolution, took place at the University of California Irvine campus on May 4 – 5. This year’s workshop was co-organized by Houri Berberian, Professor of History and Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies at UCI, Melissa Bilal, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at the American University of Armenia, and Lerna Ekmekçioğlu, Associate Professor of History and Women and Gender Studies at MIT.

New Classes at University of California-Irvine Aim to Advance Western Armenian

Talia Housik

When Houri Berberian became the Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies at UCI in 2016, she had a vision of what the School of Humanities program could become.

With the aid of donors (Southern California is home to the nation’s largest Armenian community), her vision is coming into focus with a comprehensive approach to Armenian history, including courses such as “Armenians and Armenia in Modern World History” and “Armenians and Armenia in Ancient to Early Modern World History.” But Berberian wanted to add more depth to the curriculum.

For her, that meant creating a language series in Western Armenian.

Armenian Studies Chairs and Directors Meet to Discuss the Future of the Field

On September 29, the majority of current Armenian Studies Chairs and Directors in the United States, along with representatives of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS), National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation met for an “Armenian Studies Chairs and Directors Workshop: Current Challenges & Future Prospects” at the University of California – Irvine. The meeting which was the first of its kind in the west coast was organized by UCI’s Armenian Studies Program, the UCI Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies (Professor Houri Berberian), the UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History (Professor Sebouh Aslanian), and the Society for Armenian Studies (Professor Bedross Der Matossian, SAS President).