Author: Albert Nalbandian

For Immediate Release
 
 
 
 
USC INSTITUTE OF ARMENIAN STUDIES
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact: Syuzanna Petrosyan, Associate Director
[email protected] | 213.821.3943
USC Institute of Armenian Studies Will Celebrate 15 Years of Innovation and 
Education
 
Tucked in between the School of International Relations and the Political 
Science and Policy departments at USC, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies 
punches above its weight as it engages with the resources of a global 
university, and targets the intellectual and strategic needs of the Armenian 
nation and the Republic of Armenia.
 
On September 29, 2019, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies Leadership Council 
will host a gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel to celebrate 15 years of 
championing education, innovation, and thoughtful change. Guests will hear 
about the mission and current projects of the Institute, and will be offered 
the opportunity to take part in and support programs that look to the future 
(armenian.usc.edu/2019gala). 
 
“We ask -- What are the grand challenges facing Armenia and Armenians -- and we 
develop research and programming around the search for answers,” explains Salpi 
Ghazarian, who has been director of the Institute since 2014.  
 
The Institute was conceived and created by a group of Los Angeles community 
leaders who, together, represent the entire community. All of the major 
institutions and segments of the community believed in the need to create and 
support an intellectual center that would feed the needs of all segments of the 
community and the nation.  This is reflected in the composition of the 
Institute’s Leadership Council, who, to this day, lead the work of securing the 
resources to allow the Institute to flourish. The members are: Diane Cabraloff, 
Charles Ghailian, Vahe Karapetian, Michael Kazanjian, Frank Melkonian, Prof. 
Donald Miller, Lori Muncherian, Gerald Papazian, Sinan Sinanian, Hon. Dickran 
Tevrizian, Savey Tufenkian.  Also part of the Leadership Council were the 
recently deceased, and much-beloved Dr. Mihran Agbabian and John Berberian.
 
Chaired by entrepreneur and community leader Charles Ghailian, the Leadership 
Council continues to enlarge the Institute’s support base and welcome a new 
generation of donors and thinkers to ensure the Institute’s longevity. 
 
In the first decade, under Professor Hrair Dekmejian’s leadership, there were 
several conferences held in conjunction with various community entities. 
Although the Institute is not a teaching Institute, Professor Dekmejian 
initiated several classes that offer students an opportunity to learn about 
history and culture, as part of their university studies.
 
Over the last five years, the Institute has broken new ground by strategically 
funding research in areas that are crucial to Armenia’s experience, and 
creating massive, world-class platforms where the research and intellectual 
conversation can take place, among qualified specialists and with an eager and 
curious audience. 
 
Among the most notable of these programs were two events: The first was called 
“Celebrity Diplomacy: Redefining Armenia’s Role in the Diaspora.” Then, weeks 
following what has come to be called Armenia’s Velvet Revolution, the Institute 
convened a second program, inviting political scientists and activists to 
participate in a second program entitled “Now What? Armenia Tomorrow.”  The 
programs featured newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, newly selected 
President Armen Sarkissian, former speaker of Georgia’s parliament David 
Usupashvili, in addition to others from all over the world who were present 
virtually. Both events were live-streamed in both English and with Armenian 
translation and were watched by 16,000 people around the world.
 
Institute Associate Director Syuzanna Petrosyan is responsible for the 
Institute’s global outreach. “These live presentations, together with thousands 
of attendees, ensure that each speaker, each expert, each scholar, and each 
program is taken beyond Southern California, and to policy and change makers 
around the world,” she says. 
 
Many of the speakers who are invited to participate are from among the three 
dozen researchers around the globe who have been supported by the Institute and 
its donors as they  study  Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Scholars from Brazil, 
China, Poland, the US, and of course, Armenia, went to the region to explore 
and write about the economy, health care, education, foreign policy, women’s 
issues among a host of topics. “This is an important contribution to broadening 
the discourse in the international media and academia and provide data-based 
research to policy makers in Armenia,” said Dr. Lilit Keshishyan, a research 
associate at the Institute. In October, the Institute will announce a special 
and very timely call for research, this one entitled, “From a Democratic 
Breakthrough to Challenges of Consolidation in Armenia.” 
 
“The world was very interested in how and why the Velvet Revolution happened.  
That interest continues, but it’s important to do the research that begins to 
offer answers,” says Institute Deputy Director Shushan Karapetian.  
 
As new generations of diasporan Armenians come of age, they will not only need 
access to knowledge but also new knowledge to sustain their complicated 
identities in the societies that they live in. The Institute’s Digital Diaspora 
Initiative is creating, gathering, digitizing, and making accessible materials 
that comprise the Armenian Diaspora experience with the aim of not only further 
integrating the Armenian experience within a global context, but providing new 
generations access to their own histories. 
 
“This is our story.  Diaspora history is an integral part of world history, 
California history, local histories, and it’s up to us to ensure that the 
historic record includes this last eventful century and its incredible 
experiences -- beginning with attempted destruction of a nation, yet ending 
with statehood. There are not enough studies of this unbelievable trajectory,” 
said Ghazarian.
 
As part of the initiative, the Institute has been conducting oral histories of 
Armenians in the Diaspora and collecting photographs and other relevant 
documents representing the experiences of interviewees. The “Displaced Persons 
Documentation Project”  includes 30 recorded video interviews and 1000+ 
collected and scanned images, documenting the experiences of the displaced 
Armenians of WWII who worked in forced labor in Germany and were eventually 
granted refuge in the U.S. The larger diaspora project, an ongoing endeavor, 
continues to document the experiences of individuals who have had a hand in 
shaping diaspora communities and whose stories shed light on these communities, 
past and present.
 
The Institute’s public programming is possibly best recognized through the 
INNOVATE ARMENIA festival of ideas and action. Always live-streamed in two 
languages, it is the most direct way to provide access to the wealth of 
knowledge that exists in and about the Armenian world. The 4,000 people who 
attend include many students and young professionals who seek new ways to 
connect to the Armenian experience, and to understand it in a comparative 
context, especially in Los Angeles, where so many Diasporas converge and face 
similar challenges.
 
Another way the Institute appeals to this young generation of 21st century 
Armenians is through fun and interesting podcasts. “Podcasts are like your own 
personal radio station. It is an attractive compelling space where knowledge 
about all aspects of the Armenian experience are shared through conversations 
with the professors and researchers who spend their lives studying  language, 
history, immigration, education -- and all of it is presented through the story 
of their lives,” explains Sareen Habeshian, the Institute’s Media Content and 
Operations Manager. 
 
You can listen to the podcasts by visiting armenian.usc.edu/podcasts or 
searching for the USC Institute of Armenian Studies on iTunes, Spotify, 
SoundCloud 
(
 ) or anywhere you get your podcasts.]  
 
Roughly one year ago, the Institute embarked on a critical search for the 
stories of those who were directly engaged in Armenia’s independence movement.  
Recording the memories of the actors in the independence years offers a window 
to the events, circumstances, and personalities that led to the incredibly 
difficult years and decades that followed. 
 
“We want to record causes, motivations, circumstances and external factors that 
explain what happened and what went wrong,” said Associate Director Syuzanna 
Petrosyan. 
 
“UNDERSTANDING INDEPENDENCE: Oral Histories of Armenia 1988 - 1994” consists of 
long-form high quality video interviews with the participants of the 
independence movement, including environmentalists, political activists, 
members of the Karabakh Committee, journalists, teachers. The memories recorded 
on video, as well as personal mementoes, photos, notes, journals, and 
unofficial personal correspondence are digitized and secured for history. All 
of the material is made digitally available to provide sources for scholars, 
artists, filmmakers, and researchers worldwide. The digital archive will be 
incorporated into the USC Digital Libraries while the hard copies will be 
housed at the National Library of Armenia.
 
This is not the only Armenia-based program.  Soon, the USC Tacori Center will 
be open as a  unique regional retreat and conference center, open year-round to 
host students, journalists, scholars, and artists to work and create together.
 
Continuing for the second year, the Institute’s pioneering POLICY FELLOWS 
program brings mid-career civil servants from Armenia to the City of Los 
Angeles, where in cooperation with the office of Councilmember Paul Krekorian, 
they are placed in similar City positions to exchange knowledge and gain new 
perspectives.
 
“All of these programs are about the nation’s and the republic’s challenges -- 
identifying them and tackling them using the resources of a world class 
university, and a passionate, committed community. We look forward to many more 
decades of good work together,” concluded Ghazarian.
 
 
 About the Institute
 
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 promotes links among 
the global academic and Armenian communities.
 
For inquiries, write to [email protected] or call 213.821.3943.