NAASR and the Establishment of the Mashtots Chair at Harvard, 1954-1969 ~ Treasures of NAASR's Mardigian Library

In conjunction with the celebratory event NAASR held on May 6, 2023, marking the appointment of Christina Maranci as the third holder of the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University, we are devoting this Library Treasures installment to materials from NAASR’s own organizational archives pertaining to this organization’s pioneering effort to establish the first chair in Armenian Studies in the U.S.—or, indeed, anywhere in the Armenian diaspora in North America—focusing on the years from 1954 to the appointment of the first chairholder in 1969.

The text presented by NAASR’s Director of Academic Affairs Marc A. Mamigonian on May 6, 2023, draws from his article “From Idea to Reality: The Development of Armenian Studies in the U.S. from the 1890s to 1969,” published in the Journal of Armenian Studies, vol. 10. We dedicate this Library Treasures to the visionary men and women who indeed made the idea of Armenian Studies a reality.

Read the full article here.