Barlow Der Mugrdechian elected president of the Society for Armenian Studies

The Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) has elected Barlow Der Mugrdechian as its new president, following a meeting of the SAS Executive Council on November 30. Der Mugrdechian, Berberian Director of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Fresno, succeeds outgoing president Christina Maranci (Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Harvard University) in the leadership role.

The election of new officers also saw Elyse Semerdjian (Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies, Clark University) named vice president, Helen Makhdoumian (Collaborative Humanities Postdoctoral Program Fellow, Vanderbilt University) as secretary, and Armen T. Marsoobian (Professor of Philosophy, Southern Connecticut State University) taking on the role of treasurer. Melanie S. Tanielian (Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), Asya Darbinyan (Executive Director of Chhange [Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education] at Brookdale Community College, New Jersey), and Bedros Torosian (UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, History Department, UC Davis) were appointed as advisors.

Incoming Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies (JSAS) editors Houri Berberian (Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies and Director of the Center for Armenian Studies, University of California, Irvine) and Talinn Grigor (Professor of Art and Architectural History, University of California, Davis) will serve as ex-officio officers of the SAS Executive Council.

In his remarks, Der Mugrdechian thanked the outgoing leadership team, including Maranci, vice president Rachel Goshgarian (Associate Professor of History, Lafayette College), secretary Shushan Karapetian (Director, Institute of Armenian Studies, University of Southern California), and Tamar Boyadjian, editor-in-chief of the Journal for the Society for Armenian Studies (Stanford University), for their years of service.

“It is a privilege to be elected as the new president of the Society for Armenian Studies and I look forward to collaboratively working with my colleagues,” said Der Mugrdechian. “SAS plays a vital role in providing a forum for scholars to exchange ideas. Our members work across a range of disciplines, but all their research is rooted in the study of Armenia and the Armenian people. This research, shared with the academic community and the public, helps raise awareness about Armenian culture.” Der Mugrdechian served previously as SAS President in 2001-2004 and 2015-2017.

The announcement comes on the heels of a milestone year for SAS, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. The anniversary was marked by a major international conference, “Armenian Studies: Evolving Connections and Conversations,” held at Harvard University from September 13-15. The conference, organized by SAS in collaboration with the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), was co-sponsored by multiple Armenian Studies Chairs and Programs in the United States. Over 50 scholars from Armenia, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, England, Australia and the United States participated in the three-day conference. The conference dealt with established and emerging areas of focus within Armenian Studies, making connections and conversations with related areas of research. They included — but were not limited to — the study of diaspora, migration and forced displacement; collective violence, trauma, memory and genocide; race and ethnicity; women, gender and sexuality; environment; transnational and global mobility of people and ideas; art, architecture and material culture; print and other established and emerging foci.