The Eastern Diocese, under the auspices of Diocesan Primate Bishop Daniel, has entered a new agreement with Fordham University, which will reconfigure the director’s position of the Diocese’s Zohrab Information Center into a post-doctoral fellowship.
Under the new arrangement, the directorship of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center has become a rotating position, of two to three years’ duration, where each successive director will simultaneously hold a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University.
The position will now be officially designated the “Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Armenian Christian Studies, and Director at the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center.” Applications are currently being solicited from qualified candidates, with a submission deadline of May 15, 2021.
Click here for an official job description and submission details.
The arrangement with Fordham University was pioneered by Dr. Christopher Sheklian during his tenure as Zohrab Center director (2018-2020), with the active encouragement of Bishop Daniel.
“I want to express my thanks to Dr. Sheklian for proposing this exciting new vision for the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center of the Eastern Diocese,” said the Primate, himself a former director of the center. “I am fully convinced that this exciting plan will breathe new life into the center, bringing it into the Third Millennium—and thereby more effectively realizing the expectations of its founder, the late Mrs. Dolores Zohrab-Liebmann.”
“The plan propels the Zohrab Center to the academic forefront of Armenian Studies globally; draws it more tangibly into Armenian Church Studies, specifically through St. Nersess Seminary; attracts and supports young scholars in Armenian Christianity; and establishes the Zohrab Center more securely into the Diocese’s mission and efforts to Build Up the Body of Christ,” the Primate said.
A Rarity in the Academic World
The Zohrab Center’s collaborator in this new undertaking, Fordham’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center, is a rarity in the academic world: a center dedicated to the study of Orthodox Christianity, which is unaffiliated to a seminary. In recent years the two co-founding directors, George Demacopoulous and Aristotle Papanikoloaou, have worked to include the Oriental Orthodox churches in the center’s orbit, and to advocate a broadly ecumenical approach to the study of Christian Orthodoxy.
“By working with the Orthodox Christian Studies Center, the Eastern Diocese, through its unique institution of the Zohrab Information Center, has the possibility to support and even transform the academic study of Armenian Christianity in America,” said Dr. Christopher Sheklian in a description of the vision behind the new agreement.
“At this moment, there are only a handful of academic positions in Armenian Studies in the United States, and other than at St. Nersess Seminary, there is not a single position dedicated specifically to the study of Armenian Christianity,” he said. “Through this joint venture, the Diocese will simultaneously ensure the dynamic future of the Zohrab Information Center while offering crucial support to the study of Armenian Christianity in America.”
As a practical matter, the director will be based at the Zohrab Center itself, which occupies a suite of offices, research library, and presentation facility at the Diocesan Center in New York. As an integral member of the Diocesan staff, the director will be expected to contribute to Diocesan ministries projects, and the cultural and educational life of the community. The agreement makes provision for the director to spend some time in research and teaching at Fordham University (located in uptown Manhattan), and stipulates that one day per week should be spent at St. Nersess Seminary’s Armonk, NY, campus.
The position is open to candidates with a Ph.D. in a field related to Armenian Studies, and command of at least one dialect of Armenian. According to the terms of the agreement between the Diocese and Fordham, the selection committee assessing applicants will include a representative from the Diocesan Council and a member of St. Nersess Seminary’s faculty; additionally the Diocesan Council must approve the committee’s selection before any candidate is sent to Fordham University for its approval.
About the Zohrab Center
The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center was established by the Eastern Diocese three decades ago as a resource, research, and teaching facility to promote Armenian studies, and to assist students, scholars, the Armenian community and general public in deepening their appreciation for Armenian faith, history, civilization, and culture. It was established through the generous gift of Mrs. Dolores Zohrab Liebmann, in memory of her parents: Krikor and Clara Zohrab.
Krikor Zohrab (pictured above) was one of the towering Armenian intellectual leaders in Constantinople, who lost his life in the Genocide of 1915.
His Holiness Vasken I, the late Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, presided over the Zohrab Center’s dedication ceremony on November 8, 1987, during the primacy of the late Archbishop Torkom Manoogian.
Since its founding, the Zohrab Center has enjoyed a distinguished lineage of scholars serving as director and assistant director, including Fr. Krikor Maksoudian, Rachel Goshgarian, Aram Arkun, Fr. (now Bishop) Daniel Findikyan, and Christopher Sheklian. At present, its interim director is Jesse Arlen, a scholar in the field of Armenian theology and early Christian studies who is completing his doctorate at UCLA.
Under every administrator, the heart of the center has always been its research library, whose holdings exceed 40,000 books, periodicals, photographs, and assorted resources in all areas of Armenian Studies.
Of special note would be the center’s collection of Armenian periodicals and newspapers from across the world; its vast collection of 19th/20th-century Armenian literature; and a precious treasury of rare books and manuscripts. A number of titles are found in no other library in the western hemisphere.
Click the link to find a job description for the Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Director position.