On Thursday, January 16th at 7:00pm PT / 10:00pm ET, Dr. Jesse Arlen will give a presentation hosted by the Hamazkayin Western Region Literary Unit on St. Nersess Shnorhali and the recently published book by co-authors Jesse Arlen and Matthew Sarkisian Odes of St. Nersess the Graceful: Annotated Translation (New York: Tarkmaneal Press, 2024).
Please register for this online event, whose proceedings will take place primarily in Armenian, at this link.
In partnership with Dumbarton Oaks and the Zohrab Center of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, HMML will host an intensive four-week course as an introduction to the Armenian language and paleography in the summer of 2025. This course is intended for doctoral students or recent PhDs who can demonstrate a need for Classical Armenian in their research. Priority is given to students who lack opportunities to study Armenian at their own institutions. The program welcomes international applicants but does not sponsor J visas.
Funder
Dumbarton Oaks
Location
The 2025 summer course will be taught on the beautiful campus of Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, USA.
Course level
Introduction to Classical Armenian
Course length
Four weeks
Dates
July 7, 2025 to August 1, 2025
Course size
Up to 14 students
Costs
All course costs are covered by Dumbarton Oaks for the 2025 course. Participants must pay their own travel costs to and from Collegeville, Minnesota, USA.
Accommodations
Students will be housed in dormitory apartments on the Saint John’s University campus. Each participant will have an air-conditioned, private bedroom and bathroom, with shared kitchen and laundry facilities.
A meal contract at the college Refectory will be provided.
Course overview
Sessions are held Monday–Friday in the morning and afternoon.
Total instruction time equals 110 hours.
The Dumbarton Oaks/HMML 2025 summer course “Introduction to Classical Armenian” will introduce students to the fundamentals of Classical Armenian grammar at the introductory level.
The goal of the course is to give students an active command of the language through grammar instruction and reading texts.
The textbook for the course will be: An Introduction to Classical Armenian, Robert W. Thomson (Delmar, NY: Caravan Books, 1989, 2nd. ed.), now out of print. Students will be provided in advance with a PDF copy of this book — which they are encouraged to print physical copies of — and any other materials needed for the course. Other supplemental materials prepared by the instructors will also be distributed to the students.
Once a sufficient basis of grammar has been covered, a portion of the daily work will be devoted to reading and translating Classical Armenian texts, which may be chosen based on student interest and will include both published texts as well as manuscript images.
During the course, students will also be introduced to the primary lexica, manuscript repositories, and print and online resources available to aid them in their subsequent research on pre-modern Armenian texts.
By the end of the course, students will be able to independently approach Classical Armenian texts with a comprehensive grasp of grammar and syntax and translate from Armenian into English with confidence.
Following this intensive course, students will be able to continue reading on their own or to enter reading courses at other institutions.
Prerequisites
Students will be required to learn the Armenian alphabet and practice reading and pronunciation before the course begins.
Students will be introduced to both Eastern and Western pronunciation and will be encouraged to pick one pronunciation to make their own.
Materials will be provided to aid in mastering the alphabet and for practicing reading and pronunciation.
Those with significant prior study of Armenian (e.g., a semester-long class) will not be considered.
Faculty for 2025
Guest faculty:Dr. Jesse Siragan Arlen, director, Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America; postdoctoral research fellow, Orthodox Christian Studies Center, Fordham University; and Dr. Christopher Sprecher, postdoctoral researcher, Austrian Academy of Sciences/Institute for Medieval Research, Cluster of Excellence “EurAsian Transformations”
Letter of no more than two single-spaced pages describing the applicant’s academic background, including language skills, and an explanation for why learning Armenian is important for future research and teaching. Address letter to HMML Executive Director Columba Stewart, Ph.D.
Updated curriculum vitae
A transcript of graduate school coursework for those who are currently doing graduate study. This is not required for those who completed a PhD
Add “Armenian 2025 Summer School” in the subject line.
Letter of recommendation authors
Letters of recommendation should be sent directly from the author of the letter to HMML. Please send the letter as email attachment to scholarlyprograms@hmml.org.
Add “Armenian 2025 Summer School and the applicant’s name” in the subject line.
Selection criteria
Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of previous academic achievement, demonstrated need for intensive study of Classical Armenian, and research promise.
Notification of acceptance
All awards will be announced by March 14, 2025.
Students accepting a place in the course will need to notify HMML by March 28, 2025.
Alternates, if space becomes available, will be announced March 31, 2025.
About Dumbarton Oaks:Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection is an institute in Washington, D.C., administered by the Trustees for Harvard University. It supports research and learning internationally in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through fellowships and internships, meetings, and exhibitions. Located in residential Georgetown, Dumbarton Oaks welcomes researchers at all career stages who come to study its books, objects, images, and documents.
About the Zohrab Center of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America:The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center at the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America was founded in 1987 through a perpetual endowment by Dolores Zohrab Liebmann, in memory of her parents. Her father, Krikor Zohrab, was a renowned Ottoman-Armenian community leader, parliamentarian, lawyer, and writer, who was murdered in the early days of the genocide of 1915. Today the Zohrab Center functions as a research library and community center that promotes the full range of Armenian studies and assists students, scholars, the Armenian community, and general public in deepening their appreciation for Armenian history, civilization, and culture, especially within their overwhelmingly Christian ambit.
Zohrab Center director, Dr. Jesse S. Arlen, will be on the road to present talks in the coming days. On Monday, October 28th at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., he will present on the rich manuscript heritage of Grner monastery in Cilicia under Bishop John (Yovhannes Arkayeghbayr), brother of King Hetum I.
Then on November 7th at the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of America he will participate in a program put together by the Western Diocese and the UCLA Narekatsi Chair of Armenian Studies, Prof. Peter Cowe, entitled “An Evening Honoring the Legacy of St. Nerses Shnorhali,” a literary, musical, artistic, and visual celebration of the saint’s liturgical music, including the Odes (տաղք), newly translated to English by Dr. Arlen and Matthew J. Sarkisian.
Both programs are open to the public.
While in Washington, D.C., Dr. Arlen presented today on medieval Armenian colophons at the Armenian Relief Society Norian “Youth Connect” Program at the Library of Congress and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, organized by Dr. Khatchig Mouradian.
If you are a graduate from a 4-year college or university from the NYC/Tri-State area between 2019-2024 and were involved in your school’s Armenian Club or ASA, please consider taking this survey to assist Fordham University PhD candidate Melissa Gazal with her dissertation research.
The recording of the conversation between Prof. George Demacopoulos with Dr. Jesse S. Arlen and Matthew J. Sarkisian on their book Odes of Saint Nersess the Graceful: Annotated Translation (New York, NY: Tarkmaneal Press, 2024) is now available to view on YouTube.
The Zoom webinar was hosted by the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University and co-sponsored by NAASR and the Zohrab Information Center.
The international conference “Plenitude of Grace, Plenitude of Humanity: St Nerses Shnorhali at the Juncture of Millennia” took place Thursday and Friday (Nov 30–Dec 1) at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. The recordings of all sessions from both days are available to view online through the YouTube Channel of the Pontifical Oriental Institute or below.A conference flyer and schedule are also available to view below.
The international conference “Plenitude of Grace, Plenitude of Humanity: St Nerses Shnorhali at the Juncture of Millennia” is taking place this Thursday and Friday (Nov 30–Dec 1) at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. Among the invited speakers are Zohrab Center director Dr. Jesse S. Arlen, former Diocesan primate Bp. Daniel Findikyan, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary Emeritus Professor Dr. Abraham Terian and current St. Nersess Seminary Professor Dr. Roberta R. Ervine, along with an impressive lineup of scholars and clergymen.
The conference was organized in conjunction with a series of events that were to take place in Rome and the Vatican, including concerts and an ecumenical prayer service, to honor the 850th year since the death of St. Nerses Shnorhali. Unfortunately, all events apart from the conference have been indefinitely postponed.
A conference flyer and schedule are available to view below:
If you missed David Hotson’s talk on “Raising Awareness of Armenian History through the Design of Saint Sarkis Armenian Church” then you can watch the recording of the talk below (or a previous and similar talk given at an international conference on Eastern Christian architecture and Modernity at Fordham University.
“The Making of Saint Sarkis Church,” Fordham University, June 1, 2023
“Raising Awareness of Armenian History through the Design of Saint Sarkis Armenian Church,” Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), November 1, 2023
Last weekend, Zohrab Center director Dr. Jesse S. Arlen traveled to Washington, D.C., where he gave talks on St. Nersess Shnorhali at St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church and the Catholic University of America. His talk at St. Mary’s parish, at the invitation of Fr. Hovsep Karapetyan, entitled “The Life, Works, and Legacy of St. Nerses Shnorhali 850 Years Later,” considered the great achievements of the beloved catholicos and saint, especially his efforts to bring spiritual and religious truths in a format accessible to laymen and the general population through poetry, songs, and riddles.
His talk at the Catholic University of America, delivered to an audience of graduate students, seminarians, and faculty was entitled “The Poetic World of St. Nerses Shnorhali” and considered the voluminous poetic output of Shnorhali in light of the oral and written Armenian literary tradition of the time. It emphasized the innovation of St. Nerses’ poetic contribution in light of the literary, clerical tradition dominated by prose, as opposed to the largely oral, poetic tradition performed in the songs of the Gusans (Bards), still active in St. Nerses’ time. The talk chronicles the saint’s effort to render Scriptural, theological material in an accessible form that would be appealing to laymen, in a broader effort to replace their love of the ancient, epic, pagan, oral tradition with Christian poetry and songs based on the Scriptural tradition.
A recording of the talk at Catholic University of America may be viewed below.
A collection of about one hundred photographs from Vava Sarkis Khachaturian has recently been processed and is now available for the interested public to view at the Zohrab Information Center. The collection was processed by Linda Smith, a graduate student at Simmons University, pursing a degree in Archives Management and undertaking field experience at the Zohrab Center under the supervision of Dr. Jesse S. Arlen.
The Armenian text on the back states that this photograph was taken in Constantinople and that it is the Mouradian family, which was Vava’s mother’s maiden name. The date on the back of the photograph is unclear, but it looks like 1897. Vava would have been two years old, and is thus one of the three children in the foreground of the photograph.
Vava Sarkis was born Vardanoush Sarian in Trabzon, Turkey on February 12, 1895. She spent most of her childhood in Batum, Georgia, living with her parents, five sisters, two brothers, and extended family. Vava later lived in Vienna and Paris, where she modeled for several artists including Henri Matisse. She met Sarkis Khachaturian while taking art lessons from him.
Sarkis was a prolific artist who helped create the Union of Armenian Artists. He studied painting and pedagogy extensively across Europe. He painted works depicting orphans and refugees from the Armenian genocide, as well as painting Armenian churches and religious feast days and themes. Sarkis is well known as the illustrator of Edward Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat. From 1937 to 1941, Sarkis restored and made copies from temple frescoes in India, saving this art from decay.
Sarkis Khachaturian with members of the Mamoulian family. Rouben Mamoulian (seated on floor) was a prominent theater and film director. He became known for his innovations in camera movement and sound in some of the first films that included audio technology, remakes of silent films, and musicals on the stage and screen.
The couple married in 1920. Vava and Sarkis made extended travels all over the world, and first settled in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia in 1923, where Vava described the city as going through an “Armenian renaissance” in several art forms, including painting, art, singing, theater, and opera. Sarkis and Vava continued traveling for work and pleasure before settling in New York in 1941. That is also the year Vava began painting, with her first one-person exhibition opening in the city in the mid-1940s. The couple never had children; in an interview Vava gave as part of Columbia University’s Armenian oral history archive, she stated that “our children [are] our paintings” which she thought was better “because they are living…for eternity.” You can listen to the entire interview here.
Vava and Sarkis in Tiflis (Tbilisi), Georgia, 1920.From left, Simon Vratzian, Gostan Zarian, Vava, and Arshavir Shiragian at an exhibition of Vava’s work.Vava and Sarkis in New York, 1946.
Sarkis died in Paris in 1947 after complications from an appendectomy. Vava remained in New York for the rest of her life, and she continued to paint and attended exhibitions of both her art and Sarkis’ art. Vava died of cancer on February 25, 1984 at the age of 89. Vava’s and Sarkis’ artwork can be seen in the National Gallery of Armenia and private collections across the globe.
Vava with singers Zara Douloukhanova, Kay Armen (nee Armenuhi Manoogian), and Lily Chookasian, New York, 1959.Vava with Yussof Karsh and his second wife Estrellita Karsh (nee Nachbar), 1970.
This collection provides a valuable picture of the personal life and contributions of two prolific painters and active members of the Armenian community of New York in the early 20th century, as well as other important Armenian figures they knew and loved. This collection of photographs is now available for researchers and visitors to admire and learn from in the Zohrab Information Center’s library. A finding aid of the collection is available to view here.
The last folder of materials contains the only color photographs in the collection, in which Vava is showcasing her artwork while striking poses. The photographs are undated.Vava posing beside her artwork, undated.
To see a short blog post about Vava with two photographs of her art and a painting that Sarkis did of her, click here.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art received a donation from Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas William D’Elia in memory of Sarkis Katchadourian in 1949. Click here to view Sarkis’ “Seated man in European Clothes Holding a Bottle.”
