Asbarez: UCLA Promise Armenian Institute Announces 2026-27 Grant and Fellowshi

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA Promise Armenian Institute announced the selection of the following individuals to receive research support during 2026-2027. PAI grants and fellowships are designed to support research across all academic fields, with an emphasis on or connection to Armenia or Armenians.

PAI Postdoctoral Fellowships
Kristine Aleksanyan (Ph.D., Yerevan State University 2022) will pursue a research project entitled “Automated Administrative Decision-Making in Public Administration: Accountability, Judicial Review and Fundamental Rights Protection.”

Under the mentorship of Professor Stephen Gardbaum, holder of the Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair at the UCLA School of Law, Dr. Aleksanyan’s research will focus on how automated administrative decision-making, such as that associated with Artificial Intelligence tools, challenges traditional principles of administrative and constitutional law, particularly accountability, judicial review, and the protection of fundamental rights. 
 
Astghik Soghoyan (Ph.D., Yerevan State University, 2021) will pursue a research project entitled “Mythopoetics of the Armenian Romantic Novel (1850–1900): Narrative Form, National Imagination, and Cultural Memory.”

Under the mentorship of Professor Peter Cowe, holder of the UCLA Nareketsi Endowed Chair in Armenian Studies, Dr. Soghoyan’s research will examine the mythopoetics of the Armenian Romantic novel in the last half of the nineteenth century, approaching myth as a structuring principle of narrative form rather than as inherited content. 
  
Post-Candidacy Ph.D. Fellowships  
Nora Bairamian (Ph.D. student, UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) will pursue her doctoral research entitled “Readings Between the Lines: Ottoman-Armenian Literature of the Periphery.” (partial fellowship)

Under the mentorship of her advisor, Professor Peter Cowe, holder of the UCLA Nareketsi Professor in Armenian Studies, Bairamian’s dissertation examines the experience of the Ottoman-Armenians of the eastern provinces as narrated through the writings of provincial authors Mgrdich Khrimian, Karekin Srvandztiants, Melkon Giurdjian, Tlgadintsi, and Rupen Zartarian. 
 
Faculty Research Grants 
Prof. Movses Pogossian (Distinguished Professor of Violin; Founder and Advisor, Armenian Music Program, UCLA) will pursue a project entitled, “Music of Soviet Resistance: Tigran Mansurian and his Musical Friends.”

This is a recording project devoted to composers who defied the cultural mandates of the Soviet regime following the Stalin era. Focusing on works by composers such as Tigran Mansurian, who challenged official prescriptions of Socialist Realism by pursuing bold, experimental directions in sound and structure, this musical project seeks to bring this repertoire to wider audiences through a high-quality commercial recording and public release on the respected New Focus Recordings label.
 
 
Faculty/Scholar Travel Grants  
Prof. Artur Davoyan (Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) will pursue a travel project titled “Strengthening ties between UCLA and Armenian physics and engineering communities.”  

This endeavor seeks to connect UCLA with six institutions in the Republic of Armenia to identify talent, inform them of UCLA’s research capabilities, and explore collaborative opportunities across fields ranging from space engineering to quantum physics, with the aim of establishing long-term partnerships in the form of joint proposals, visiting graduate student recruitment, and sharing research infrastructure, where applicable.
 
Dr. Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky (Director, Research Program in Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology) will pursue a travel project titled “Archaeological Investigations at Masis Blur: Advancing Research on the Neolithic Southern Caucasus in Near Eastern Perspective.” 

This project aims to continue archaeological excavations at Masis Blur (Armenia)—an 8000-year-old settlement—which have been ongoing since 2012 and have produced major discoveries bearing on early village life in the Armenian Highlands. 

Student Research or Travel Grants
Emma Bertoutian (Undergraduate Student, UCLA Department of Anthropology) will receive a travel research grant to participate in the Masis Blur Archaeological Project in Armenia, under the supervision of Dr. Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky. 

This project aims to provide archaeological experience through participation in the Masis Blur (Armenia) archaeological project, thereby enhancing knowledge of domestic architecture in the Neolithic agricultural communities of the Armenian Highlands.

Sofia Gevorgian (Undergraduate Student, UCLA Political Science/Middle Eastern Studies) will receive a travel research grant to present her research project entitled, “Lost in Translation: Linguistic Barriers to Nagorno-Karabakh’s Lasting Ceasefire,” at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Richmond, VA. 

This study explores the role of translation in the stability of interstate treaties, specifically examining how discrepancies between state-sanctioned and independent translations of the 2023 Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire declaration challenge its interpretation and, by extension, its implementation.

Julian Kaptanian (Ph.D. Student, UCLA Department of History) will receive a travel research grant to pursue a project entitled, “Mother Armenia: Reproductive Politics Across Armenia’s Three Republics from 1918 to 2018.”

This project explores how women and motherhood in Armenia have long existed at the crossroads of empires. By tracing how global assistance influenced obstetric care and medical attitudes over time, the study shows how reproductive politics has become entangled with broader imperial, neoliberal, and Diasporic priorities.

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