23rd Annual Armenian Studies Graduate Colloquium

Events Programme/ February 21/ March 7 – March 14

Saturday, February 21, 2026

Hosted by Martin Adamian, UCLA

• Opening Remarks

Nora Bairamian
Co-Director of the 2026 Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA

Dr. S. Peter Cowe
Narekatsi Professor of Armenian Studies
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA

• Medieval Art and Scribal Praxis

Moderator: Nora Bairamian, UCLA

 Ovsanna Khachatryan (Mashtots Matenadaran Inst. of Manuscripts)
“Cryptographic Traditions in Medieval Manuscripts: Cultural Secrecy and Intercultural Comparisons”

Michael Blomquist (East Illinois University)
“The Iconography of Armenian Art and its Relationship with Increased Figural Representation in Two Islamic Traditions”

• Armenian Activities in the Ottoman and Russian Empires in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Moderator: Lori Pirinjian, UCLA

Sahika Karatepe (Binghamton University, SUNY)
“Extractivism and Rural Labor in Bardizag: Charcoal Production and the Armenian Peasantry (1790–1890s)”

Mete Ulatas (Pennsylvania State University)
“Spaces of Confinement, States of Becoming: Armenian Political Prisoners in the Late Ottoman Empire”

Irina Badalyan (Yerevan State University)
“Tiflis in the Second Half of the 19th Century: Armenological Perspectives and Urban Self-Governance Institutions in the Context of Imperial and National Projects”

Saturday, March 7, 2026

Hosted by Martin Adamian, UCLA

• Prehistoric Archaeology of the Armenian Plateau

Moderator: Aram Ghoogasian, UCLA

Mariam Saribekyan (Armenian Academy of Sciences)
“Beliefs and Lifestyle of Early Bronze Age People in Armenia Based on Clay Figurines”

Artyom Ananyan (Yerevan State University)
“Modelling the Bronze and Iron Age Archaeological Landscape of the Tavush Region through GIS Analysis”

• Ethnonational Imaginary and Culture

Moderator: Aram Ghoogassian, UCLA

Cassandre Lejosne (University of Lausanne)
“Copying Zvart‘noc‘: Architectural Models between Medieval Memory and Modern Heritage”

Margarita Khakhanova (Masaryk University)
“Hidden Soviet Ideology: The Construction of the Armenian Capital”

Jonathan Hollis (East Illinois University)
“Listening to Armenian Baku: History and Memory in Digital Diaspora”

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Hosted by Martin Adamian, UCLA

• Armenian Media in a Modern and Contemporary Timeframe

Moderator: Alexia Hatun, UCLA

Armenuhi Muradyan (University of Halle-Wittenberg)
“Armenian Women Between Empires: the Earliest Contributions to Print Media”

Diana Ghazaryan (Pázmány Péter Catholic University)
“Mediating in the Empire(s): The Krikorian Studio and Armenian Social Agency through Visual Culture in Ottoman and Mandate Jerusalem”

Ani Kojoyan (Yerevan State University)
“Language, Power, and Gendered Disinformation in Contemporary Armenian Public Discourse”