News

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) is pleased to announce the 2025 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies, awarded to Dr. Boris Adjemian for The Brass Band of the King: Armenians in Ethiopia (I.B. Tauris) and Drs. Sergio La Porta and Alison M. Vacca for An Armenian Futūḥ Narrative: Łewond's Eighth-Century History of the Caliphate (Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago). The 2025 awards are for books with a 2024 publication date. Boris Adjemian is the Director of the AGBU Nubar Library, France. He holds a PhD in history from École des Hautes Études en Sciences...

Scholars are invited to submit abstracts for an international conference, History Embodied: Biography and Armenian American Studies, which will convene at NAASR on October 22–23, 2026, to examine how biographical and prosopographic approaches can deepen the study of Armenian American history.

NAASR Receives Huge Collection of Records The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) recently received a huge collection of records for its Mardigian Library from Jasper Kezerian of Waltham, MA, from the collection of his late father Thomas Kezerian (1921-2011). The collection consists of more than 1,200 discs, of which the vast majority are 78 rpm records, dating from the early 1900s through the 1950s. Originating in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Egypt, Soviet Armenia, Europe, North America, and other places, these recordings include instrumental and vocal music in Armenian, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, and other languages of the region, performed...

NAASR Celebrates 70th Anniversary with Successful Endowment Launch On Saturday, October 4, the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) held its 70th Anniversary Gala, “Building the Future of Armenian Studies,” at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston.  An enthusiastic crowd of over 350 attendees came to celebrate the organization’s decades of work to shape the academic landscape of Armenian Studies in the United States and abroad.  The distinguished audience included supporters and academic leaders from across the country as well as students and special guests. The John Baboian Trio entertained the guests with their lovely Armenian melodies during...

On Friday, October 24, 2025, NAASR welcomed Dr. Anna Chulyan, the Director of the National Library of Armenia (NLA) at its Vartan Gregorian Building in Belmont, MA. Dr. Chulyan toured the NAASR building, with a particular focus on NAASR’s Mardigian Library, and gave a short presentation to a group of NAASR Board Members, supporters and dedicated volunteers, and colleagues from sister organizations such as the Armenian Museum of America and Armenian Cultural Foundation. NAASR Mardigian Library Director Ani Babaian with National Library of Armenia Director Dr. Anna Chulyan, with NAASR Board Members, supporters, volunteers, and colleagues. Dr. Chulyan’s visit built...

The Mardigian Library of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) recently became a part of WorldCat, the world’s largest bibliographic database, operated by OCLC, Inc.  

NAASR is excited to announce an unforgettable journey across Cilicia and Western Armenia in 2025, a highlight of our year-long 70th Anniversary Celebration.

On the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of Haigazian University, Rev. Dr. Paul Haidostian, President of Haigazian University, delivered a thought-provoking lecture titled “Education, Peace, & the Bridge-Building Role of Middle East Christianity” on March 3, 2025, at Columbia University’s Faculty House. The event was organized by the Columbia University Armenian Center and was co-sponsored by the NAASR / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues, the Columbia University Armenian Society, and the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA).

NAASR’s Aronian Book Prizes were established in 2014 by the late Dr. Aronian and Dr. Geoffrey Gibbs, to be awarded annually to outstanding scholarly works in the English language in the field of Armenian Studies and translations from Armenian into English.