Between Armenian(s): A conversation with Arakel Minassian - January 21, 2026

Please join us for the re-launch of our graduate student Arakel Minassian’s co-written book Sahmanakhagh(kht): Hayerenn u hayerēně [Border-play: The Armenian and the Armenian]. In this book, Arakel and Armenia-based writer Anahit Ghazaryan narrate a moment in time that found Arakel navigating life in Armenia as a Lebanese-Armenian diasporan from Canada. Written as a set of correspondences between Arakel and Anahit on topics ranging from everyday interactions to specific musings on language and dialect, the book also narrates a meeting between the two major standards of Armenian – Arakel’s Western Armenian, the standard of much of the post-genocide Armenian diaspora, and Anahit’s Eastern Armenian, the standard of the post-Soviet Armenian Republic. Written in their respective dialects (and their different orthographies), Anahit and Arakel’s dialogue illustrates the growing and complicated interactions between these two standards at the same time as it stages a discussion on diaspora, home, and the various meanings of Armenianness in the present-day. First published in Yerevan in 2022 with a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Sahmanakhagh(kht) is now in its second printing. This event will feature a discussion with Arakel Minassian in English, as well as readings in both Armenian and English translation. Books will be available for purchase.