News

Staff Report The Thomas A. Kooyumjian Family Foundation has made a donation of $50,000 in January of 2021 to the Kooyumjian Endowed Scholarship Fund at Fresno State. Together with previous donations from the Family Foundation, the Endowed Scholarship has reached close to $400,000. The Fund will provide scholarships to students within the Armenian Studies Program, in the College of Arts ...

Carina Tokatian Staff Writer “Small peoples have a right to survive, with our languages, our heritage, and our poetry, too: we contribute our verse to the great play of human life on God’s earth,” stated Prof. James Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Emeritus, at Harvard University, as he reflected on his latest work Misak Medzarents: The Complete Lyric Poems. ...

Dikran Dzhezyan Bachelor of Science in Biology Armenian Studies Minor Spanish Minor   What encouraged you to take an Armenian Studies course? My brother, who is also a Fresno State graduate, was the one who originally introduced me to the Armenian Studies courses. His praise of the classes persuaded me to enroll in an Arts of Armenia course taught by ...

Arshak Abelyan Staff Writer The second Artsakh war, initiated by the Republic of Azerbaijan, against the Republic of Artsakh served to relay another reminder to the Armenian people of their past struggles that have now extended into the present. On Saturday, January 30th, 2021, Eric Hacopian, a political correspondent from CivilNet in Armenia joined the Fresno State community through the ...

Carina Tokatian Staff Writer The French philosopher Roland Barthes once wrote, “When we define the photograph as motionless images, this does not mean only that the figures it represents do not move; it means that they do not emerge, do not leave: they are anesthetized and fastened down, like butterflies.” Ironically, as Dr. Zeynep Devrim Gürsel highlights, the Ottoman Empire’s ...

Sara Beberian Staff Writer Want to feel more connected to your local Armenian community? The podcast “All Things Armenian” is the place for you! Airing from 2:00-3:00PM every Sunday on Multicultural 1600AM and hosted by Professor Barlow Der Mugrdechian from the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State, listeners enjoy hearing interviews covering a variety of topics including; music, art, Fresno ...

            Society for Armenian Studies President Dr. Bedross Der Matossian conducted the SAS Annual Meeting. Staff Report On January 16, 2021, the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) held its 46th Annual Membership Meeting on Zoom. More than forty members, including the Executive Council, were present at the meeting, which was open to all members of ...

Dustin Vartanian Staff Writer Dr. Ohannes Kılıçdağı, the 17th Kazan Visiting Professor in Armenian Studies at Fresno State taught a new course called “Awakening, Death, and Survival: History of the Ottoman Armenians in Modern Times,” during the Fall 2020 semester. This course focused on the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire prior and during the Armenian Genocide. Each Kazan Visiting Professor ...

Christine Pambukyan Staff Writer Imagine this. Your father was drafted for a war months ago and you are now living in your family home with your grandparents, your siblings, and your mother. Holidays come and go, yet there is no sign of your father. Soon, your grandfather is arrested, and your mother asks you and your siblings to no longer ...

Arshak Abelyan Staff Writer The foundation of the new Republic of Turkey in 1923 presented a new challenge to the Armenian community in Turkey. The question was how Armenians and other non-Muslims should be defined under the new Republic. Dr. Ohannes Kılıçdağı, 17th Kazan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies during the Fall 2020 semester, presented his second lecture of three ...