Author: Hambardsumian Paul

This year’s 37 AYF Youth Corps participants are preparing to depart to Armenia, where they will be conducting summer camps for children in various locations across Armenia and Artsakh. Celebrating its 25th year of building bridges to the homeland, the AYF Youth Corps program will host camps in nine regions, including Gyumri, Proshyan, Artik, Stepanakert, Shushi, and others.

Among the participants are the recipients of the Sosé & Allen’s Legacy Foundation Travel Grant, which supports volunteerism in Armenia. Since 2014, the Grant has supported young people in building lasting connections to their homeland. Its goal is to ease the financial burden of volunteering in Armenia in order to allow more young women and men from the Diaspora an opportunity to experience Armenia first-hand and to contribute their skills and abilities to the betterment of our homeland.

The Sosé & Allen’s Legacy Travel Grant was established in loving memory of Armenian Youth Federation alumni Sosé Thomassian and Allen Yekikian. The dedicated couple volunteered, for years, to develop and expand the AYF Youth Corps program. They shared a strong belief in its mission—strengthening the ties between the Diaspora and Armenia by promoting meaningful participation of Diasporan youth in the nation-building process in Armenia and Artsakh.

The four recipients of the fellowship are Mariam Nerses, 19, a student at Pierce College; Naira Gourdikian, 19, a student at Cypress College; Harutyun Demirjian, 20, a student at California Polytechnic University, Pomona; and Lara Markarian, 18, a student at the University of California, Irvine.

This year also marks the first group of recipients of the Tamar Abkarian Memorial Scholarship. Established in 2018, the scholarship aims to support AYF Youth Corps participants—a program that was started in 1994 with Tamar’s vision. Tamar was one of the brave individuals who traveled to Armenia in the early 1990s to lay the foundation of the program, and she paved the way for hundreds of young Diasporans to live in, work in, and experience Armenia and Artsakh through AYF Youth Corps. At the time, working in an independent homeland seemed like a dream. But, she helped make it a reality. With her untimely passing in 2018, her family and friends established the scholarship in order to support the young people who are continuing the work Tamar started.

The recipients of the scholarship are Marinor Balouzian, 18, a student at the University of California, Berkeley; Victoria Cinquegrani, 19, a student at the University of California, Irvine; and Michelle Tervandian, 19, a student at California Polytechnic University, Pomona,

“AYF Youth Corps would not exist without Tamar’s leadership in the 1990s, and Sosé and Allen’s work in the 2000s. Future generations of participants have the ability to build on the work these three exemplary alumni put into the program, and participate in the development of Armenia,” said Talin Saklarian, chairperson of the AYF Youth Corps Committee.

Founded in 1933 with organizational structures in over 17 regions around the world and a legacy of over eighty years of community involvement, the Armenian Youth Federation is the largest and most influential Armenian-American youth organization in the world, working to advance the social, political, educational, and cultural awareness of Armenian youth.

The Society for Armenian Studies established the “Graduate Research and Conference Grants Program for M.A. and Ph.D. Students” in 2019. The aim of the grant program is to provide resources for graduate students to conduct research and present papers at conferences. Grants of up to $500 are awarded semi-annually to eligible graduate students. The inaugural group of applicants were chosen by a selection committee composed of members of the SAS Executive Council.

Pauline Pechakjian, an M.A. student at the University of Irvine, applied for a travel grant to conduct research in Armenia. Pauline’s M.A. thesis is entitled “Rethinking ‘Repatriation’: A Social History of the Mass Migration of Diaspora Armenians to Soviet Armenia, 1946-49.”

“I am appreciative of the funding that will facilitate my travel to Armenia this summer,” said Pechakjian. “As a young scholar, it is an honor to have my research aims recognized and supported by one of the most important academic organizations in the field of Armenian studies, and I look forward to sharing the findings of my research with the SAS community.”

Julia Hintlian, a Doctoral candidate at Harvard University, applied for a grant to participate in the “New Research on Ancient Armenia: Second Geneva Workshop for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers” at the University of Geneva, May 31 -June 1.

“The conference is significant to my scholarly career for two reasons,” stated Hintlian. First, it will allow me to engage with Armenian Studies in a cross-cultural, trans-linguistic look forward to finding common ground with my international colleagues. Second, my presentation is fundamentally theological in nature, and as an aspiring scholar of religion, I will seek to highlight the value of theological lenses to original research in Armenian Studies.” Hintlian will present a paper entitled: “Homegrown Flock: Rethinking the Delayed Emergence of the Lamb of God in Armenian Manuscript Illumination,” at the Geneva conference.

Nora Lessersohn, a Doctoral student at University College London, is working on a doctoral project, preliminarily titled “Ambitions of an Ottoman Armenian in America (1834 – 1895).” By studying the life and intra-communal encounters of Ottoman Armenian American Christopher Oscanyan, Lessersohn’s research seeks to complicate “monolithic portrayals of the past” and demonstrate “the complex range of attitudes, ideas, and norms within historical Armenian, American, and Ottoman societies.” Her dissertation will focus on Oscanyan’s publications, including an “Oriental Album” of photographs he produced during the American Civil War.

“The SAS grant has allowed me to procure high-quality research images of these photos and their descriptions, which are invaluable to my project as a whole,” stated Lessersohn.

Sargis Baldaryan, a Doctoral student at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, is working on his doctoral thesis entitled “In Pursuit of ‘the Most Precious Good’: Armenian Commercial Manuals in the Julfan Global Trade Network.” The SAS grant will assist Baldaryan in attending the “Sixth CEM International Graduate Conference on Cultural Entanglement, Transfer and Contention in Mediterranean Communities” at Central European University in Budapest, in May30 – June 1. Baldaryan will present a paper entitled “Exploring Early Modern Armenian Business Correspondence: Mediterranean Trade Through Letters Sent to Hierapet di martin in Venice.”

“This inspiring initiative of SAS is bound to make a significant contribution to young scholars’ careers as future professional specialists,” said Baldaryan. “It will provide them with financial assistance to carry out their own projects in a wide range of academic institutions and promote Armenian studies around the world.”

Ani Yenokyan is a Doctoral student in Art History and Theory and is a junior researcher at the Mesrop Mashtots Matenadaran, in Armenia. Yenoyan’s doctoral thesis is entitled “Armenian Printed Book Illustrations in the 16th – 18th Centuries.” The SAS grant will provide support for Yenokyan to attend the conference “New Research on Ancient Armenia: Second Geneva Workshop for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers” at the University of Geneva, May 31 – June 1, where she will present a paper on “Armenian Printing as a Bridge Between Late Medieval and Early Modern Armenian art.”

“This workshop tends to give an opportunity for young researchers working in the field of Armenian studies to present their work in progress,” commented Yenokyan. “For me, it is more important because this year’s Geneva workshop is giving preference to subjects relating to pre-modern issues and practices.”

“This is the first time that SAS has established such a grant,” noted SAS President Bedross Der Matossian. “We are glad that we are be able to help young scholars in the field, whether by assisting them in their research or helping them to travel to conferences. We hope that in the future we will be able to fund a larger pool of applicants.”

The SAS congratulates the first recipients of the SAS Graduate Research and Conference Grants for M.A. and Ph.D. students and wish them much success in their research and academic careers.

The deadline for the next application cycle is September 1.

The SAS Graduate and Research Grant was made possible through the generous institutional support of: the Armenian Studies Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; the Armenian Research Center, University of Michigan, Dearborn; the Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies, University of California, Irvine; the Hovannisian Chair of Modern Armenian History, University of California, Los Angeles; the Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Chair of Armenian Art & Architecture, Tufts University; the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research; the Armenian Communities Department, Gulbenkian Foundation; the Armenian Studies Program, California State University, Fresno; the Robert Aram, Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies, Clark University; the Armenian Studies Program, University of California, Berkeley; and the Institute of Armenian Studies, University of Southern California.

The Society of Armenian Studies is an international body, composed of scholars and students, whose aims are to promote the study of Armenian culture and society, including history, language, literature, and social, political, and economic questions; to facilitate the exchange of scholarly information pertaining to Armenian studies around the world; and to sponsor panels and conferences on Armenian studies.

For membership information or more information on the Society for Armenian Studies, please visit the SAS website.