Featured speaker: Dr. Zaruhi Hakobyan (State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia / Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscipts)
Date: Thursday December 4, 2025 at 4:00 PM (Eastern)
Location: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Room 304
6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA
This event is in-person only.
Note: this event is the first in a two-part series presented by the Mashtots Chair and NAASR and featuring Dr. Hakobyan. The second is a seminar that will be held at NAASR on December 6, 2025.
Description: The Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Armenian community represents one of the least studied areas within Armenian Studies. Nevertheless, it played a significant role in the political and cultural relations between Armenia and Byzantium. During the periods of its flourishing, the community created monuments that preserve crucial information about the cultural and artistic manifestations of the Chalcedonian Armenians, as well as about the particular character of their iconographic and linguistic features. The understanding and interpretation of this material is the primary means of rethinking the nature of the cultural activity of the Orthodox Armenians, since historical sources themselves, unfortunately, have preserved little information about the Chalcedonian Armenians.
Dr. Zaruhi Hakobyan is an Associate Professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia and researcher at the Matenadaran. Her research focuses on Armenian-Byzantine, Armenian-Georgian, and Armenian-Chalcedonian art and culture. Dr. Hakobyan earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from Lomonosov Moscow State University.
In addition to her teaching, Dr. Hakobyan organizes annual online workshops on the Eastern Christian world and serves as editor-in-chief of the Yearbook of the Academy of Fine Arts. She has authored more than 80 scholarly articles and book reviews and has presented at over 50 international conferences, including three International Congresses of Byzantine Studies.
Presented by: the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR).