Faculty Research Grants 

Non-Muslim Tastemakers of Islamic Art: Armenian Christian, Jewish, and Bahai Dealers from the Middle East and North Africa and ‘Persomania’ Between the Wars

Grant provided to Professor Sarah Abrevaya Stein (https: //history.ucla.edu/person/sarah-abrevaya-stein/) to support a historical research project examining the Armenian Christian, Jewish, and Baha’i dealers from the Middle East who were crucial to the rise and flow of a global market for art and antiquities from Iran during the interwar period—sparking “Persomania” in Europe and the US. These men (and some women) supported a market with imperialist roots that furthered Iranian/Pahlavi nationalist myths. This project pays heed to a wide variety of dealers, including Armenian Christians Dikran Kelekian, Krikor Minassian, and Hagop Kevorkian, as well as Jewish dealers Ayoub Rabenou and Baha’i dealer Rafi Y. Mottahedeh.

Amount: $25,000

Period of Funding: 2025-2026

Processing and Preserving the Bedros Alahaidoyan Music Collection: Proposal for an Inaugural Project for the Planned UCLA Armenian Sound Library  

The project is a collaboration between PAI and the Armenian Music Program headed by Movses Pogossian (https: //schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/people/movses-pogossian/) (Professor of Violin and Director of the Armenian Music Program, UCLA) and Melissa Bilal (https: //www.international.ucla.edu/armenia/person/2581) (Distinguished Research Fellow, UCLA CNES; Lecturer, Department of Ethnomusicology). The main goals of this project are 1. To introduce Bedros Alahaydoyan and his body of work to the scholarly community of Ethnomusicologists 2. To make the Alahaidoyan archive widely available to scholars at-large as well as the broader public. This project is envisioned to become a part of a larger project of building a permanent digital Armenian sound library at UCLA curated and managed by the Armenian Music Program (https: //schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/resources/armenian-music-program/) and hosted by the Ethnomusicology Archive of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music (https: //schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/facilities/ethnomusicology-archive/).

Amount: $10,000

Period of Funding: 2021-2022

Armenian Communities of Iran: History, Trade, Culture

This grant covers publication and graphics costs associated with the 14th volume of the UCLA series, “Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces,” edited by Richard Hovannisian (https: //history.ucla.edu/faculty/richard-hovannisian) (Professor Emeritus, UCLA History). The Armenian communities of Iran date back to antiquity and there has been a steady interaction between Armenia and Iran in cultural, social, economic, and political history. This volume will explore the centuries-long Armenian Iranian connections, especially since the forced migration of countless thousands of Armenians to New Julfa, across the river from the Safavid capital of Isfahan. There is a focus on art and architecture, urban and rural communities, trade and commerce, and processes of integration of the Armenian Iranians.

Amount: $18,000

Period of Funding: 2021-2022

Armenian Medical Genomics Project 

A seed grant provided to the Armenian Medical Genomics Project (https: //www.international.ucla.edu/armenia/article/235295) continues the group's sequencing and interpretation of genomes on DNA samples from Armenia with additional samples collected from Artsakh. The project is headed by Dr. Wayne Grody, director of the Diagnostic Molecular Pathology Laboratory within the UCLA Medical Center and Professor in the Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Pediatrics, and Human Genetics at the UCLA School of Medicine, and Dr. Salpy Akaragian, Director Emerita at UCLA’s International Nursing Center. 

Amount: $40,000

Period of Funding: 2020-2021

Course Development Grants 

Through an Archival Lens: Armenia, the Genocide and Diaspora UCLA Information Studies

This interdisciplinary undergraduate course centers the nature and role of “the archive” in understanding past events and future trajectories affecting the Armenian people. Designed by Dr. Anne Gilliland (https: //seis.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-directory/anne-gilliland) in collaboration with Dr. Marianna Hovhannisyan, it will use case studies and community engagement activities to teach students how to identify, compile, and critically read and respond to the multilayered dispersal, fragmentation, deliberate erasure, distortion and withholding of the Armenian archival record. Course content will be drawn from the instructors’ research engagement with official, community and family archives and other forms of memory texts across the Diaspora, historical Western Armenia, the Republic of Armenia, and the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh.

Amount: $2,900

Period of Funding: 2024-2025

PAI Postdoctoral Fellowships 

Robert Sukiasyan

Under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Cowe, Dr. Sukiasyan will present a comprehensive socio-political and cultural history of the Sivas Armenian community from the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution to the 1960s. Exploring the community’s vibrant pre-genocide life, its systematic dismantling through violence, deportations, and policies of ethnic homogenization, and the long-term consequences of these events.

Period of Funding: 2025-2027

Aram Ghoogasian

 Under the mentorship of Dr. Sebouh David Aslanian, Dr. Ghoogasian will focus on studying Armenian print culture in the mid-nineteenth century. Drawing on book history scholarship and using Armenians as a case study to rethink print culture not as the mere presence of print matter but as a complex of associated practices enabled or otherwise altered by printing technology, as well as the beliefs that invested it with meaning.

Period of Funding: 2025-2027

Samvel Grigoryan

Under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Cowe, Dr. Grigoryan will provide a systematic survey of the activity of the “J̌ancʽlerutʽiwn Hayocʽ” / “Cancellaria [Regni] Armeniae” (“[Royal] Chancellery of Armenia”), connecting chancelleries and document production in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. He will examine the manifestations of power, geopolitical reality, interstate relations, dependences and sovereign’s sacrality through wording, terminology, nomenclature and symbolism of royal charters. There will also be a focus on the creation of a digital database (titled “Jansler”) of the documents from the Royal Chancellery of Armenia.

Period of Funding: 2024-2026

Burcu Bugu

Under the mentorship of Dr. Salih Can Açiksöz, associate professor in the UCLA Department of Anthropology, Dr. Bugu will examine the complex dynamics of identity and belonging among Alevized Armenians in Dersim, a region historically known to be a refuge for persecuted communities. Focusing on the intersection of Armenian and Alevi-Kurdish histories, Dr. Bugu will explore how Dersimi Armenians negotiate their ethno-religious identities in the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide and subsequent massacres. She will also investigate the current activities of many Alevized Armenians, including reconversion to Christianity and establishment of connections with wider Armenian communities, in ad

Period of Funding: 2024-2026

Anoush Tamar Suni 

 Under the mentorship of Dr. Salih Can Açiksöz, Dr. Suni will focus on expanding her dissertation—which traces the afterlives of the architectural heritage of the now-absent Armenian community that has persisted on the landscape of southeastern Turkey alongside more recent ruins—into a book manuscript to submit to an academic press.

Period of Funding: 2023-2025

Haley Tupper

Under the mentorship of Dr. Shant Shekherdimian of UCLA Division of General Surgery, Dr. Tupper will evaluate Armenia’s and other post-Soviet nations’ successes and failures in expanding access to healthcare according to the WHO framework of key health system building blocks, to help guide Armenia’s universal healthcare (UHC) development.

Period of Funding: 2022-2023

Helen Makhdoumian

Under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Rothberg, chair of the UCLA Department of Comparative Literature, Dr. Makhdoumian’s research will involve a contrapuntal study of Armenian American, Palestinian American, and American Indian/First Nations novels and memoirs; specifically, using a rubric of “nested memory” to articulate the structure of the multigenerational transmission of memory in the face of the recursivity of collective trauma.

Period of Funding: 2022-2023

Astghik Kuzanyan

Working under the supervision of Professor Artur Davoyan of the UCLA Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Dr. Kuzanyan’s research will involve experimental and numerical studies related to nanometer scale single photon thermoelectric detectors, nanophotonics, and thin film materials, and will lay a foundation for collaborations between UCLA and Armenia’s Institute for Physical Research of the National Academy of Sciences.

Period of Funding: 2021-2022

Alyssa Mathias

Under the mentorship of Dr. Melissa Bilal and Professor Movses Pogossian of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Alyssa Mathias will develop a book manuscript positing that musicians occupy a unique vantage point from which to understand the complex web of transnational, diasporic, and regional initiatives that address pressing concerns in Armenia today; advocating that attention to musical performance offers unique insight into local perspectives on philanthropic and development initiatives in the Republic of Armenia. Alyssa Mathias will also undertake research at UCLA for her second project, a multigenerational study of silence in the U.S. Armenian diaspora.

Period of Funding: 2021-2022

Hrag Papazian

Working under the supervision of Professor Salih Can Açiksoz of the UCLA Department of Anthropology, Dr. Papazian will work on a book manuscript based on his ethnographic research on the Armenians in Turkey, which will discuss the diversity of the country’s Armenians and the multiplicity of contemporary Armenian identity by studying the traditional Christian Armenian community, as well as the recently emerging Muslim and Alevi Armenians, and the labor migrants arriving from neighboring Armenia.

Period of Funding: 2021-2022

Sona Tajiryan

Working under the supervision of Professor Dr. Sebouh Aslanian, Dr. Sona Tajiryan works on two research projects. First, she will turn her dissertation titled, “The Early Modern Global Trade of Diamonds and Gems: An Armenian Family Firm on the Crossroads of Caravan and Maritime Trade (ca. 1670-1730),” into a book manuscript. Dr. Tajiryan's second project is the preparation of an annotated translation with a lengthy introduction of a previously unstudied accounting ledger of a gem merchant. 

Period of Funding: 2020-2021

Armenian Genocide Research Program Postdoctoral Fellowships 

Gevorg Vardanyan

Under the mentorship of Dr. Taner Akcam, Dr. Vardanyan will examine how Armenian-Americans remembered the late Ottoman state violence from the 1890s to 1965 in their public life, going beyond a survivor-centric understanding of genocide memory by recognizing and examining the contributions of communal elites and institutions in the memory process, while also situating genocide memory within the dynamics of American culture.  

Period of Funding: 2025-2027

Sedat Ulugana 

Under the mentorship of Dr. Taner Akçam, Dr. Ulugana will examine the shifting nature of the Kurdish-Armenian political movements and alliances towards the formation of the modern Turkish state, revealing how the transformation from an imperial political setting to a modern national state impacted the state-society relations, as some Kurdish communities that were implicated in the Armenian Genocide became victims of state violence themselves.

Period of Funding: 2024-2026

Anna Aleksanyan

Under the mentorship of Dr. Taner Akcam, director of the PAI Armenian Genocide Research Program, Dr. Aleksanyan will write a monograph based on her dissertation, examining the gendered aspects of the Armenian genocide, in particular, the ways the Ottoman Armenian females were targeted for physical destruction, sexual abuse, rape, sexual slavery, forced assimilation, forced marriages, and forced prostitution.

Period of Funding: 2023-2025

Dissertation Year Fellowships 

Erdem Ilter

 Under the mentorship of Dr. James Galvin, Erdem Ilter will complete his dissertation which examines the history of the Anatolian General Inspectorate, Anadolu Umûm Müfettişliği (1895-1899). Sultan Abdulhamid II established the inspectorate to solve the growing “Armenian Question,” which was seen as an existential threat to the empire during the late nineteenth century.

Period of Funding: 2023-2024

Daniel Ohanian (partial fellowship)

Under the mentorship of Dr. Sebouh David Aslanian, Daniel Ohanian will complete his dissertation, which examines a period of turmoil among the Armenian communities of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. Around 1700, these communities reacted to increased Roman-Catholic missionary work in their midst by either (1) doubling down on their adherence to the traditional Armenian Apostolic Church or (2) converting to Catholicism and creating new, Armenian-Catholic institutions.

Period of Funding: 2023-2024

Jennifer Manoukian

Under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Cowe, the UCLA Nareketsi Professor in Armenian Studies, Jennifer Manoukian will complete her dissertation which explores the emergence of the written standard known today as Western Armenian and examines the intellectual labor that led to its acceptance as the dominant medium for writing and education among Ottoman Armenians by 1900.

Period of Funding: 2022-2023

Post-Candidacy PhD Fellowship 

Natalie Kamajian

Under the mentorship of Dr. Anurima Banerji, Natalie Kamajian will conduct her dissertation research, focusing on Armenian dance in America as a vehicle for staging racial identity. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology combining history/historiography, (auto)ethnography, discourse analysis and choreographic analysis, this project unites dance studies with Armenian, diaspora, and ethnic studies, which often overlook the role of performance in negotiating power relations.

Period of Funding: 2025-2026

PhD Student Fellowships 

Lori Pirinjian

Lori Pirinjian is a Ph.D. student in the Armenian Studies Program in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Lori also holds a Master’s degree from San Francisco State University in Cultural Anthropology as well as Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of San Francisco. In her research at UCLA, which she is pursuing under the supervision of Professor Peter Cowe, Lori is studying gender expressions in modern Armenia and their narratives of national belonging and identity.

Period of Funding: 2020-2021

Student Research and Travel Grants 

Narod Arisian (Undergraduate Student, UCLA History) received a travel research grant to present her research project entitled, "Anjar's Urban Fabric and the Stranger Within: Tracing the Evolution of Armenian Diasporic Consciousness and Transnationalism," at the Yale Undergraduate Research Conference.  This study explores how Anjar's urban development was instrumental in influencing Musa Dagh Armenians' ability to preserve their cultural heritage, adapt to socio-economic realities, and maintain political resilience through the end of the Lebanese Civil War.

Amount: $1,450

Period of Funding: 2025-2026

Sofia Gevorgian (Undergraduate Student, UCLA Political Science/Middle Eastern Studies) received a travel research grant to pursue a research project entitled, "Repatriates and Social Cohesion: The Case of Returning to–and Staying in—Armenia." This study will analyze Western-Armenian-speaking repatriates' social cohesion and integration in Armenia. Applying Oral History, Linguistic Anthropology, and Transnational Identity Theory, this research will explore how dialect variation creates structural and ideological barriers in government, education, and society.

Amount: $3,000

Period of Funding: 2025-2026

Christine Mavilian (Medical Student, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine) received a travel research grant to pursue a research project entitled, "Familial Psychosocial Impact of Cochlear Implantation in Armenia."  This study will analyze how social determinants of health impact access to essential support for the families of the children and young adults who have received cochlear implants through the Armenian International Medical Fund (AIM Fund) and identify barriers and facilitators to early pediatric cochlear implantation and explore changes in familial dynamics post-implantation.

Amount: $2,500

Period of Funding: 2025-2026

Lori Der Sahakian (Doctoral Student, UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology) received a travel research grant to pursue a research project entitled, "The Marketing of Identity in 1960s and '70s Armenian-American Popular Music." This study will examine Armenian-American popular music from the 1960s and '70s in relation to the issues of racialization and the construction of ethnic identity in the music market.

Amount: $2,945

Period of Funding: 2025-2026

Liza Mardoyan is a doctoral student in the UCLA Department of Information Studies, pursuing a research project entitled, “Knowledge Production via Print Culture in the Armenian Diasporic Community of Beirut, Lebanon.” Her project aims to elucidate how a forcibly displaced community produces and sustains knowledge in its native language in a diasporic setting by investigating the complex interplay between the establishment of schools and publishing houses and the resulting print culture. Motivated by the disappearance of Armenian publishing house archives, her study endeavors to preserve and construct the community’s history. The researcher aims to gather preliminary data through archival research and oral history interviews, shaping a comprehensive understanding of Armenian diasporic print culture.

Amount: $3,000

Period of Funding: 2024-2025

Nathan Chu is an undergraduate student studying Pre-Human Biology and Society (class of 2024). Working under the mentorship of Dr. Shant Shekherdimian of the David Geffen School of Medicine, and through a partnership with university students in Armenia, Nathan will administer a survey that will analyze the attitudes and beliefs of male tobacco users towards lung cancer screening.

Amount: $2,400

Period of Funding: 2021-2022