Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
DICKRAN KOUYMJIAN (Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies) has published “Paris and the Arts,” The Armenian Reporter International, January 24, 1998, pp. 17 & 19; “Les reliures de manuscrits armèniens à inscriptions,” Recherches de codicologie comparèe. La composition du codex au Moyen Age, en Orient et en Occident, edited by Philippe Hoffman, Paris: Presses de lÕecole normale supèrieure, 1998, pp. 259-274; “Armenia in the Age of Columbus,” Armenian Mind, vol. II, no. 1 (1998), pp. 109-126; Reprint of “Armenia from the Fall of the Cilician Kingdom (1375) to the Forced Emigration under Shah Abbas (1604)” and “A Critical Bibliography for the History of Armenia from 1375 to 1605,” Fresno: CSUF Armenian Studies Program, 1998, ii, 50, 7 pages; “A Unique Armeno-Greek Papyrus”, Etudes Coptes V, edited by M. Rassart-Debergh, Paris, Louvain: Editions Peeters, 1998, pp. 165-169; and “Der Kuenstler William Saroyan,” ADK (Armenisch-Deutsche Korrespondenz), 4 (1998), pp. 32-33.
Conferences/lectures.
In March Dr. Kouymjian was invited to present a conference on the “Miniature Cycle in the Alexander Romance” to the Société des Etudes Arméniennes in Paris and in May on the same subject to the seminar in Armenian Studies at the University of Geneva. In April he presented a paper entitled “Confiscation of Armenian Property and the Destruction of Armenian Historical Monuments as a Manifestation of the Genocidal Process,” at the International conference “L’Actualité du Génocide des Arméniens,” held at the Sorbonne in Paris; the revised version of this paper was given in October to the International Genocide Conference held at CSU Sacramento.
In September he was one of three American scholars invited to participate in the international conference, “Armenia and the Christian Orient,” sponsored by the Armenian Academy of Sciences. He presented a paper entitled “Christian Iconographic Motifs in the Armenian Alexander Romance.” He also chaired the final panel and was interviewed by Armenian television at the Martyrs Monument in Erevan. Also in October he presented a paper entitled “The Decline and Revival of Erzerum, 16th-18th Centuries,” at the conference on Erzerum held at UCLA.
Activities/Distinctions
Professor Kouymjian received a Bertha and John Garabedian Charitable Foundation grant for continued work on the Index of Armenian Art. He also received a Research Scholarship, Creative Activity Award from CSU Fresno. In conjunction with planning activities for the Celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the conversion of Armenia to Christianity, met twice with His Holiness Karekin I at Etchmiadzin and once with His Holinesss Aram I in Los Angeles. Further meetings were held with Marielle Reber, Curator, of the Musée dÕart et dÕhistoire in Geneva and Guy Blazy, Director of the Musèe des Tissus in Lyons, in Paris. These meetings were to prepare major exhibits on Armenian Altar Curtains in Lyon and the Treasures of Cilicia in Geneva. He was invited to spend a week at NIAS, National Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Holland, Wassenaar in February, for work on the Album of Armenian Paleography and a second meeting in Aarhus, Denmark at the University of Aarhus, to prepare the manuscript of the Album of Armenian Paleography for publication. Prof. Kouymjian was nominated as the Fresno State representative for the tri-annual “American Scholar of the Year” award of Phi Kappa Phi academic fraternity. He was a runner-up.
ISABEL KAPRIELIAN (Kazan Professor of Modern Armenian and Immigration History) presented “Keghi Regional Associations in America and their Impact on the Home Villages,” Conference, “Historical Armenian Cities: Erzerum,” UCLA, November, 1998; “Aftermath of Genocide: Armenian Refugee Children and the Orphanage Experience,” International Conference on Genocide, Sacramento State University, October, 1998; “Armenians in California,” Three Rivers, California, Elderhostel, September, 1998; and “Armenian Women and Education,” at First Armenian Presbyterian Church, Fidelis Society, Fresno, May, 1998.
She gave the keynote address in English “The Armenian Genocide,” at the Annual Genocide Commemoration Services in Fresno, April, 1998; “Armenian Neighborhoods: Their Rise and Fall,” at the National Association for Ethnic Studies, CSU Fresno, March, 1998.; and “Armenian Cupid and His Wayward Arrows: Armenian Marriage Patterns During the 1920s,” presented at St. Paul Armenian Church, Fresno, February 1998. She recently published “James Manoukian,” in The Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XIV, (1998).
BARLOW DER MUGRDECHIAN was elected to the Board of Directors of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary of New York. He was appointed to the editorial boards of Armenian Forum and the Armenian Series at Mazda Press.
In June 1998 he visited Armenia for four weeks as part of the USDA-CSU Fresno-Armenian Agricultural Academy Marketing Assistance Program. He provided translation and coordination services for a team of four Fresno State faculty who were in Armenia.
He attended the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association held in Chicago in November, 1998. As editor of the Newsletter of the Society for Armenian Studies(SAS) he presented a report to the Executive Council on the Newsletter. In January 1999 he spoke as part of the “Library at Lunch” series of the Fresno State Henry Madden Library.
MICHAEL KREKORIAN’S recent short fiction is currently appearing in an on-line issue of Black Ice with another piece forthcoming in Mississippi Mud. His article titled “William Saroyan and the Art of Failure” will be appearing in Armenians in the Raisin Industry: 1890-1990. He will present a paper at the March 20th William Saroyan Conference titled, “American Trauma and the Summer of the Beautiful White Horse.”