Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Staff Report
Dr. Sergio La Porta has been appointed as Haig and Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies at Fresno State and will join the faculty in August 2009 as an Associate Professor of Armenian Studies.
The Haig and Isabel Berberian Endowed Chair in Armenian Studies, established in the fall of 1988, is one of several Armenian Chairs in the United States and provides financial support for a distinguished Armenologist. The endowment honors Haig and Isabel Berberian and was established by their son-in-law and daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Arnold H. and Dianne Gazarian. Other friends of the Armenian Studies Program have made significant contributions to the endowment.
Dr. Dickran Kouymjian, Emeritus Professor of Armenian Studies, was the first holder of the Berberian Chair from 1988 until his retirement in May of 2008.
Dr. La Porta is a native of Elmhurst, N.Y., and received his B.A. from Columbia University in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Culture. After completing his undergraduate degree, he studied Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity on a one-year program at the Rothberg International School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. At the advice of Prof. James Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, he took a class in Classical Armenian and fell in love with the language. He continued his studies under Prof. Russell at Harvard, where he received his Ph.D. in 2001.
Dr. La Porta wrote his thesis on volume three of Grigor Tat‘ewac‘i’s (Krikor Dathevatsi) Book of Questions. His thesis reevaluated Grigor’s work and uncovered previously unknown sources for the text. While conducting research for his thesis, he spent 1999-2000 on a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to work with Prof. Michael Stone and Dr. Roberta Ervine. At the completion of that year, Prof. Stone asked if he would like to teach at the Hebrew University after finishing his thesis. Dr. La Porta went to Jerusalem in September, 2001, as a visiting lecturer, joining the staff full-time in 2003, and became a Senior Lecturer at the University in 2008.
Dr. La Porta met his wife, Malina Zakian, on the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor summer program in Yerevan, directed by Prof. Kevork Bardakjian, Marie Manoogian Professor of Armenian Language and Literature. They were married in 2003 and have two children, Lucine, 3, and Zaven, 1. They have enjoyed their experience of living in Jerusalem and in proximity to the Armenian community in the Old City.
Dr. La Porta’s research interests have focused upon Armenian intellectual life in the Middle Ages. He has published a three-volume work in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium series of Peeters Press on the Armenian commentaries on the Christian philosopher and mystic Dionysius the Areopagite. He has also published numerous articles on Grigor Tat‘ewac‘i, Grigor Narekac‘i, medieval monasticism, and history. He has hosted several international conferences, and co-edited the papers of one that has been published by Brill press. In addition to continuing his work on Grigor Tat‘ewac‘i’s Book of Questions and the Armenian commentaries on Dionysius the Areopagite, his current research projects include a history of Armenian during the period of the Zak‘arian brothers (c. 1190-1236), and the reception of apocalyptic literature in the Armenian tradition.
Dr. La Porta will be teaching courses in Armenian literature, history, culture, and on the Armenian Church when he joins the Armenian Studies Program.