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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. Established in 2019, the goal 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 Spring 2021 group of applicants was chosen by a selection committee composed of members of the SAS Executive Council.

Victoria Abrahamyan is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Her dissertation entitled “Armenian Refugees: State Formation and Identity Construction in the French Mandatory Syria, 1920-1939” deals with Armenian refugees to analyze state formation processes in Syria. She argues that Armenian refugees played an important role in the state and nation-building processes that shaped modern-day Syria. Her work is part of a wider research project called BORDER – “Towards a Decentered History of the Middle East: Trans-border Spaces, Circulations, Frontier Effects and State Formation, 1920-1946.” BORDER aims at developing a theoretical reflection on borders and nascent nation-states in the post-Ottoman Middle East from a decentered perspective.

“I am honored to receive the Society for Armenian Studies Fellowship. This award will allow me to attend the upcoming Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Conference in Montreal, to conduct further research and obtain archival materials. Thanks to this valuable support, I shall be able to finalize my current doctoral research and make my modest contribution to the advancement of the field of Armenian studies.”

Emre Can Daglioglu is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Stanford University. His research examines how capitalism was locally transformed and restructured in the Ottoman Empire after the Public Debt Administration (PDA) became the backbone of state finances in the late 19th century and to examine the role of silk in reshuffling and refiguring local and global financial, socio- political, and environmental networks in the East Mediterranean.

“The generous support of the Society for Armenian Studies will provide me with access to the rich collection housed in the AGBU Nubar Library in Paris. Since the research in this library’s invaluable archives is essential for my dissertation project, this grant makes an invaluable contribution to my academic career. More importantly, I should note that while the pandemic increasingly and severely threatens the already limited availability of funding sources especially in the field of humanities, I cannot exaggerate how valuable the generous SAS support is for graduate students to travel and research.”

Armen Manuk-Khaloyan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Georgetown University. His current research is entitled “Druzhiny: Life and Death on the Russo-Ottoman Front, 1914-1917” which deals with the Armenian volunteer battalions that served in the Russian army during World War I.

“I am very grateful to be a recipient of the Society for Armenian Studies Research Grant. With it, I will be able to carry out research at archives and institutions critical to a number of projects I am currently working on. The generosity of the Society continues to ensure the quality and breadth of the scholarship within the field.”

Bedros Torosian is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. His research entitled “A Man at Home is Worth a Thousand Men at Sea: Territoriality, Nationalism, and the Making of Ottoman Armenian Masculinity” deals with masculinization of two imaginary yet intertwined Ottoman and Armenian geobodies on the eve of increased Armenian male emigration from the Ottoman Empire to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Relying on previously unexplored Armenian-language newspaper articles and editorials printed on both sides of the Atlantic, the essay examines the symbiotic relationship between territoriality, masculinity, and patriarchal nationalism both before and after the momentous 1908 Young Turk Revolution and until the outbreak of World War I.

“It is a great honor to be a recipient of the SAS Grant that will allow me to attend the MESA Conference in Montreal, Canada in October 2021 and to present my recent paper titled “There is a House, but No Keeper, There is a Land but No Cultivator: Territoriality, Nationalism, and the Making of Ottoman Armenian Masculinity.” I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for this generous financial assistance that will help support my trip to the conference and therefore expand the reach of my research.”

The next application cycle will have a deadline of September 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.