4 p.m. 
Stephens Hall 270  UC Berkeley

Lecture Abstract:

In this short introduction to St. Gregory of Narek (945–1003) I will start with a brief definition of “mysticism” simply to show that St. Gregory of Narek does not quite fit the stereotypical portrait of a medieval mystic author; that his “mysticism” is essentially Sacramental Theology at its best, rooted in the deeper meanings of Baptism and the Eucharist and heightened by the use of biblical imageries that have in turn acquired a rich history of interpretation in the course of their transmission up to his time. I will provide several keys for a better understanding of Gregory’s works in at least two genres: odes and prayers. 

Speaker’s Bio: 

Abraham Terian is Emeritus Professor of Armenian Theology and Patristics at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, New York, where he also served as Academic Dean and edited the St. Nersess Theological Review for 12 years (1997–2008, the only Western-language periodical on Armenian Theology). Prior to his time at St. Nersess, he was Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literatures at Andrews University for twenty years (1973–93), and for four years a recurring Visiting Professor for Armenian and Hellenistic Studies at the University of Chicago (1984–88). He is an internationally renowned expert in the fields of Hellenistic, early Christian and medieval Armenian literatures, fields in which he has published extensively. As a Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2006, he became the first recipient of the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in the Humanities award. In 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia; in 2016 a Fellow of the Ambrosian Academy of Milan; and in 2018 a Fellow of the National Humanities Center, USA.

https://events.berkeley.edu/armenian/event/283914-st-gregory-of-narek-redefining-a-mystic-author

Dr. Dzovinar Derderian, Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of History and Executive Director, Armenian Studies Program will share her research on “Expanding and Transforming Armenian Education in 19th Century Van”

Saturday, March 1 at 2:00 PM . 

12359 Stonebrook Road, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022

Please mark your calendars now and check back for more details.

12:30 p.m. 
Stephens Hall 270  UC Berkeley

Lecture Abstract

The name of Aram Andonian, a former journalist and author deported in 1915, is often cited in the historiography for the documents he published in 1920 with the aim of proving the intent of the Ottoman rulers to annihilate the Armenians during World War I. In the meantime, Andonian is considered a writer by literary critics for the publication of Ayn sev oreroun… (“In those dark days…”) in 1919, a collection of short stories based on his own experience as a deportee in Meskene camp (Syria) and written on the spot. However, historians of the Armenian genocide have shown little or no interest in Andonian’s literary work. This indifference towards Ayn sev oreroun… reflects an arbitrary division according to which the analysis of literary texts should be delegated to specialists in the literature of the Catastrophe, while the study of the genocide as a historical event proper would be the reserved domain of the historians. It also echoes a long-standing embarrassment on the part of historians when faced with testimony, in its most diverse forms, particularly in the context of the historiographies of genocides and mass violence of the twentieth century. In this lecture, I propose to attempt to overcome this division between literature and history through a comparative reading of literary and documentary texts written by Aram Andonian about the camp of Meskene, and to answer the following question: is a historical reading of Ayn sev oreroun… possible? And if so, what contribution would it make to our knowledge and to the historiography of the genocide?

Speaker’s Bio

Boris Adjemian is the Director of the AGBU (Armenian General Benevolent Union) Nubar Library, Paris. He holds a PhD in history from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, France) and Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” (Italy). He is the co-editor of the academic journal Études arméniennes contemporaines. He is also an affiliated researcher to the Centre de recherches historiques (CNRS, EHESS) and a fellow of the French Collaborative Institute on Migration.

https://events.berkeley.edu/armenian/event/285773-writer-and-witness-aram-andonian-and-early

Sunday, March 9 5pm

St. John’s Armenian Church
275 Olympia Way, San Francisco, CA

In recognition of Komidas Vartabed’s 155th Anniversary and the 100th Anniversary of the Komitas Quartet.

Hamazkayin is sponsoring a concert by the Komitas Quartet in San Francisco.  This special event will be held on Sunday, March 9, at St. John’s Armenian Church Hall, 275 Olympia Way, San Francisco. 

Ticket reservation details to come.    

4 p.m. 
3335 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley

Lecture Abstract 

The last century and a half of scholarship on the unique history referenced above has been characterized by the acrimonious debate between two diametrically opposed perspectives on this late antique Armenian historian and his oeuvre. The former represents a reverential, traditionalist view that evolved in the Middle Ages to inscribe the author in what became the mainstream narrative of the origins of Armenian literature. The other, by contrast, manifests the results of the rigorous critique of a self-consciously modernist approach of the turn of the 20th century, keen to distinguish itself from the other side’s adulatory perspective in wielding the new analytical tools of the comparative method. The latter uncovered a series of data (historical, geographical, etc.) incompatible with the writer’s accepted 5thcentury dating and speculated on the propriety of assigning an 8th-9th century date more germane to realia and terminology encountered in the text. Hence the title’s second component as an extreme encapsulation of this outlook.

This lecture seeks to escape the binary opposition of the earlier approaches, each problematic in its own way, and forge a new path to investigate the question, building on research in related fields over the last two decades to construct a novel contextualization for the writer and his history, situating them within their broader intellectual milieu rather than atomizing the specific details at issue and pursuing the work in isolation. It will attempt to define the sub-genre to which the writing belongs, ascertain the author’s fundamental goal, determine its genealogy and precedents, illustrate its continuity of engagement with other contemporary scholarly projects, and lightly sketch its subsequent influence, which in this case was both protracted and transformative into the modern period of Armenian nationalism.

Speaker’s Bio

Peter Cowe is a Distinguished Professor, Narekatsi Chair of Armenian Studies, and Director of the Center for World Languages at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests include late antique and medieval Armenian intellectual history, the Armenian kingdom and state formation across the medieval Mediterranean, Muslim-Christian dialogue, and modern Armenian nationalism. The author of five books in the field and editor of ten, he is the past co-editor of the Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies. Currently, he is working on a monograph on the reception of Hellenic paideia in Armenian culture. A recipient of the Garbis Papazian award for Armenology, he has been inducted into the Accademia Ambrosiana, Milan, and awarded a doctorate honoris causa by the Russian-Armenian University of Armenia.

https://events.berkeley.edu/armenian/event/284624-patmahayr-father-of-history-mendacious-faker-or-princ

Armenian Heritage Night at the Chase Center

 Golden State Warriors vs. Milwaukee Bucks 

March 20 at 7 PM

Join the Bay Area Armenian community for a night filled with culture and excitement! Enjoy a special performance by Vonn Dance School and cheer on your Warriors in an unforgettable game.

Don’t miss out on this amazing night of sports, culture, and community!

Tickets can be purchased at: https://am.ticketmaster.com/warriors/buy/virtual-venue/RUdTMDMyMA==?promoCode=QVJNRU5JQU4=&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR23tBN6LGmJFAWR2LMSMiNOX6m65JwSSmc92z_-rd_Jhg9ec-Sx8nihrks_aem_F2bvO2PXOmfRdfhtUtVONQ

OMG, a Week of Pure Ecstasy at SF Jazz!

Tigran Hamasyan Friday 21 March 2025

Naghash Ensemble Tuesday 25 March 2025

Log into SFJazz.org now and get your tickets

Here are the Tigran tickets:

https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/24-25/tigran-hamasyan

and here are the Naghash tickets:

https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/24-25/naghash-ensemble

and here’s a seating chart for the Miner Auditorium:

https://www.sfjazz.org/globalassets/pdfs/2017-miner-projection-map.pdf

(when you click on a seat, it shows your view of the stage.

How cool is that?!?  Seriously.)

Support Jazz! Here’s a thought, if we all add a nice extra donation on the SF Jazz website, maybe they will take the hint and offer more great Armenian jazz!

Support local business! If you live near Mountain View, visit Ava’s Downtown Market at 340 Castro St.They are carrying Noy 10- and 20-year brandy, just in time for the holidays! (Hurry up, he might be sold out by Nowruz!)

Stay tuned! We’ve got a couple shows up our sleeves, planned for some time in 2025.

Copyright  2024 Armenian Cultural Community of the SF Bay Area Our mailing address is: 2500 Hospital Drive, Building 4B, Mountain View, CA 94040

4 p.m. 
Stephens Hall 270  UC Berkeley

Lecture Abstract

This lecture will introduce participants to the life and literary corpus of St. Nerses Shnorhali, Catholicos of the Armenian Church from 1166–1173 AD, with a focus on the saint’s liturgical odes (taghk). The first part of the lecture will provide an overview of Shnorhali’s life and context in medieval Cilicia during the age of the Crusades, before undertaking a survey of his vast literary, particularly poetic, oeuvre. The lecture will consider the works alongside the axes of tradition and innovation, seeing how Shnorhali both drew on the authors and genres that came before him, particularly St. Grigor Narekatsi and Gregory Magistros, as well as made innovations that had a lasting impact on the subsequent Armenian literary tradition. Special attention will be paid to the place of poetry in Armenian society and the vexed relationship between clerics like Shnorhali and the pre-Christian bardic (gusan) tradition, still an active presence in the twelfth century.

Speaker’s Bio

Dr. Jesse S. Arlen is the director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center at the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University. He earned his Ph.D. in 2021 from UCLA under the supervision of Prof. Peter Cowe with a dissertation on Anania of Narek and 10th-century religious developments in Armenia. He has published a number of scholarly studies relating to Armenian monasticism, education, and religious literature. He has taught Classical Armenian at the University of Notre Dame, the Dumbarton Oaks and Hill Museum & Manuscript Library’s intensive summer school, and St. Nersess Armenian Seminary. At the latter institution, he has also given public lecture series on the Armenian medieval historical tradition and medieval Armenian poetry. With Matthew Sarkisian he founded Tarkmaneal Press in 2024 with the goal of publishing annotated texts and translations of Armenian Christian sources. The press’s first two volumes were released in 2024: (1) Matthew J. Sarkisian. An Early-Eighteenth-Century Hmayil (Armenian Prayer Scroll): Introduction, Facsimile, Transcription and Annotated Translation. Edited and with a Foreword by Jesse S. Arlen. Sources from the Armenian Christian Tradition, volume 1 (New York, NY: Tarkmaneal Press, 2024); (2) Matthew J. Sarkisian and Jesse S. Arlen. Odes of Saint Nersess the Graceful: Annotated Translation. Sources from the Armenian Christian Tradition, volume 2 (New York, NY: Tarkmaneal Press, 2024).

https://events.berkeley.edu/armenian/event/283915-time-and-place-heaven-and-eternity-in-the-odes-of

4 p.m. 
142 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley

Lecture Abstract:

With their recent book, The Armenian Woman, Minoritarian Agency, and the Making of Iranian Modernity, 1860–1979 (Stanford University Press, 2025), Houri Berberian and Talinn Grigor offer the first history of Armenian women in modern Iran. Foregrounding the work of Armenian women’s organizations, the authors trace minoritarian politics and the shifting relationships among doubly minoritized Armenian female subjects, Iran’s central nodes of power, and the Irano-Armenian patriarchal institutions of church and political parties.

Engaging broader considerations around modernization, nationalism, and feminism, this book makes a conceptually rich contribution to how we think about the history of women and minoritized peoples. Berberian and Grigor read archival, textual, visual, and oral history sources together and against one another to challenge conventional notions of “the archive” and transform silences and absences into audible and visual presences. Understanding minoritarian politics as formulated by women through their various forms of public and intellectual activisms, this book provides a groundbreaking intervention in Iran’s history of modernization, Armenian diasporic history, and Iranian and Armenian feminist historiography.

Speakers’ Bios

Houri Berberian is Professor of History, Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies, and Director of the Center for Armenian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on late nineteenth/early twentieth-century Armenian history, especially revolutionary movements and women and gender. Her books include Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911: “The Love for Freedom Has No Fatherland” (2001); and the multiple award-winning Roving Revolutionaries: Armenians and the Connected Revolutions in the Russian, Iranian, and Ottoman Worlds (2019); and Reflections of Armenian Identity in History and Historiography (2018), coedited with Touraj Daryaee. Her most recent book, for which she has received grants from the Persian Heritage Foundation, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, is The Armenian Woman, Minoritarian Agency, and the Making of Iranian Modernity (2025), coauthored with Talinn Grigor.

Talinn Grigor is Professor of Art History in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on 18th- to 20th-century architectural and art histories through postcolonial, race, feminist, and critical theories grounded in Iran, Armeno-Iran, Armenia, and Parsi India. Her books include the winner of the Saidi-Sirjani Book Award, The Persian Revival (2021), Contemporary Iranian Art (2014), Building Iran (2009), and Persian Kingship and Architecture (2015), coedited with Sussan Babaie. Grigor has received fellowships from the National Gallery of Art, Getty Research Institute, Cornell’s Humanities Center, Princeton’s Persian Center, MIT’s Aga Khan Program, SSRC, and Persian Heritage and Calouste Gulbenkian foundations. Her last book is coauthored with Houri Berberian, The Armenian Woman, Minoritarian Agency, and the Making of Iranian Modernity, 1860–1979(2025). Her current book project, The Hyphenated Architect, examines the pivotal role of ethnically Armenian architects and artists in the proliferation of the Modern Movement in West Asia.

https://events.berkeley.edu/armenian/event/283966-the-armenian-woman-minoritarian-agency-and-the