News

Staff Report Fresno State alumnus James L. Melikian, hosted an annual September gathering of friends at his home in Southern California, in support of the James L. Melikian & L.A. Brothers Scholarship fund, which was established at Fresno State in 2019. This year’s gathering raised over $5,000, which will be awarded to deserving students studying in the Armenian Studies Program ...

Sosse Baloian Yanez Special to Hye Sharzhoom The Armenian Studies Program has recently acquired some interesting unpublished works donated to the Armenian Studies Program Library and Archive. One of the newest collections, “The Margossian Collection,” was donated by Knarik Clara Margossian, daughter of Margos Der Margossian. The collection contains Margos Margossian’s handwritten diaries and family history; two of his published ...

Careen Derkalousdian Staff Writer On Saturday, April 29, 2023, the Armenian community of Fresno gathered at the Massis Ararat Cemetery to witness the groundbreaking of the Mousa Ler [mountain] monument. The event was planned by the Mousa Ler Association of Fresno and consisted of several guest speakers and a religious service. A reception took place after the groundbreaking at First ...

Hannah Paloutzian Staff Writer Armenian 1A, Elementary Armenian, is a four-unit course offered every Fall Semester by the Armenian Studies Program. The class is taught by Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian and is a language course for beginners. Western Armenian is a dialect that was spoken by Armenians who lived in the Ottoman Empire prior to the Armenian Genocide. Survivors of ...

Ani Sargsyan Staff Writer “It is really fun to perform with the students, because I love the music. They love the music – it is written well,” said Dr. Arsen Jamkotchian. Dr. Jamkotchian is a newly hired collaborative pianist in Fresno State’s Department of Music. He was born and raised in Glendale, California, and moved to Fresno in February of ...

Natalie Agazarian Editor Alfred Hitchcock once famously claimed: “In feature films the director is God; in documentary films, God is the director.” Director Inna Sahakyan of Bars Media referenced Hitchcock’s words when introducing her New York Times Critic’s Pick documentary “Aurora’s Sunrise” at the Fresno premier screening, which took place on Friday, September 1, before an audience of more two ...

Eddy Thurber Staff Writer Hye Sharzhoom welcomes Dr. Michael Krikorian, one of Fresno State’s newest music professors. Dr. Krikorian was born and raised in Fresno, graduating from University High School and receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Fresno State, where he took a number of Armenian Studies courses. He now serves as Assistant Professor of Piano and Music ...

Hannah Paloutzian Staff Writer “How can I get students to read the book?” said Dr. Katia Karageuzian during a discussion of her new book, Forbidden Homeland: Story of a Diasporan. Her presentation was part of the Armenian Studies Program Fall Lecture Series and was held on Friday, September 8, 2023, with many Fresno State students in attendance. At her presentation, ...

Sosse Baloian Yanez Special to Hye Sharzhoom In the last year, I have had the privilege of joining the Armenian Studies Program staff as a research assistant working with the Program’s Library and Archive. The first collection I worked on was the George Injajikian Personal Papers donated to the Program in 2018 by George Injajikian’s daughter, Gina Injayan. The collection ...

Joel D. Hirst, Vienna, VA, for a copy of his book, An Excess of Nationalism: A Novel about Armenia (2023), 115pp., in English. Vatche Ghazarian, Ph.D., Portsmouth, RI, for a copy of The Post WWI Rise of Turkish Nationalism and Resumption of Genocidal Policies (Portsmouth, RI: Mayreni Publishing, 2023), 586pp., in Armenian and English. The book is a collection of ...