News & Events

The Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) has selected its awardees for its Graduate Research and Conference Grants Program for M.A. and Ph.D. Students, as well as its inaugural Grant on Race, which seeks to support research that analyzes race as it relates to Armenian communities in the United States.

Established in 2019, the aim of the Grants Program is to provide resources for graduate students to conduct research and present papers at conferences. Grants of up to $1000 are awarded semi-annually to eligible graduate students. The Fall 2020 group of applicants was chosen by a selection committee composed of members of the SAS Executive Council, with an eye towards helping students cover unexpected costs that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Lori Pirinjian

Lori Pirinjian, one of two recipients of the Grant on Race, is a Ph.D. Student at UCLA in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Her research examines decolonial reparations for the Armenian community, as well as historical comparisons of the Armenian and Native American communities.

“I am honored to receive the Society for Armenian Studies Fellowship on Race,” stated Pirinjian. “This award allows me not only to further my studies in important topics such as critical race theory and decolonial reparations, but it also gives me the opportunity to bring Armenian Studies into these ongoing conversations. I look forward to continuing the dialogue thanks to this fellowship.”

 

Bedros Torosian 

Bedros Torosian, one of two recipients of the Grant on Race, is a Doctoral student in History at the University of California, Irvine. His research utilizes the understudied early Armenian-American press to explore the question of American whiteness as it relates to these early Armenian-American communities. In this way, he seeks to fill a lacuna in existing Armenian Studies scholarship on the issue of race and contested whiteness in the early Armenian American community.

“I am honored to be a recipient of the SAS Grant on Race,” Torosian stated. “Receiving this fellowship truly means a lot for graduate students like myself who are ambitious to conduct research as part of their studies but can hardly find adequate financial means to do so. As a rising young scholar, I would like to thank you for this opportunity which will surely contribute to the unearthing of often muted and dreadfully studied episodes of modern Armenian history and hence the advancement of the field of Armenian studies.”

 

Garine Palandjian

Garine Palandjian is a PhD Candidate in Educational Policy and Evaluation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She is working on a dissertation entitled “Rethinking Borders and Identities in Armenian Education.” Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Garine did fieldwork for her dissertation by conducting 39 interviews with current and retired educators in Yerevan, Tavush, and Shirak regions, as well as the Istanbul Armenian community. She applied for an SAS grant to support her research on how borders – and memories of bordering practices and experiences – redefine education and identities.

”With the support of the Society of Armenian Studies fellowship,” Palandjian stated, “I plan to stay on track with my university graduate requirements and deadlines… and contribute to the field of qualitative research, educational policy, and Armenian Studies.”

 

Jennifer Manoukian

Jennifer Manoukian is a PhD candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is writing her dissertation on the formation of a written standard for Ottoman Armenians in the nineteenth century.

“I am very grateful to the Society for Armenian Studies for awarding me this fellowship,” commented Manoukian. “ I will be putting it toward covering digitization costs at archives in South Carolina, Sweden, and London, all of which I had planned to visit in person before the pandemic. The Society’s generosity has ensured that, despite the lockdown and travel restrictions, my doctoral research will proceed as planned.”

 

Sose Grigoryan

Sose Grigoryan is a PhD student at the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Armenia, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. Her research, which is based on ethnographic fieldwork as well as archival research, explores the religious culture of Armenian Catholics and their everyday and cultural life in the South Caucasus, particularly in the Shirak, Tashir and Lori regions of Armenia and Georgia.

The SAS grant, stated Grigoryan, “is a great help and support for me, thanks to which I will be able to continue my field work in all Armenian Catholic villages, and finish my dissertation. Thanks to SAS financial support, I will be able to publish a comprehensive work on the religious culture of Armenian Catholics, which will provide valuable information on this large group of forgotten Armenians in history, present unexplored historical, cultural, and ethnographic episodes of History, Culture, Armenian studies and ethnography for next generations.”

 

Tatiana Anoushian

Tatiana Anoushian is a Master’s Candidate in Cinema Studies at the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University. She is also the President of their Cinema Studies Graduate Student Association. Her master’s thesis is inspired by questions around trauma and language in Armenian cinema, with a particular focus on the concept of untranslatability.

“This is a crucial time to support Armenian studies, Anoushian stated.” “Now, more than ever, I am grateful that organizations like SAS exist. As a recipient of this fellowship, I look forward to continuing my work on Armenian cinema. I am both honored and humbled to be recognized by the committee.”

 

“Despite COVID-19, we had a very good pool of applicants this year. The awardees are conducting  novel research in the field of Armenian Studies in the general understanding.  We are extremely happy that we are able to support our graduate students in these difficult times” noted SAS President Bedross Der Matossian. “I would like to specifically thank the Armenian Chairs and Programs Directors and other Armenian Institutions for supporting us in fulfilling this objective. We hope to raise more money in the future in order to fund more graduate students.”

The next application cycle will have a deadline of April 15, 2021.

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 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 (NAASR); the Armenian Communities Department, Gulbenkian Foundation; the Armenian Studies Program, California State University, Fresno; the Institute of Armenian Studies, University of Southern California; and AGBU Nubar Library, Paris.

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, at societyforarmenianstudies.com.