PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Studies Program
International Institute
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Contact: G. J. Libaridian
Te: 934-763-4555
Email :[email protected]
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN APPOINTS LIBARIDIAN AS NEW DIRECTOR OF ARMENIAN
STUDIES PROGRAM
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. Professor Mark Tessler, the Director of the
International Institute of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
announced the appointment of Professor Gerard J. Libaridian as the new
director of the Armenian Studies Program at the University.
In his new responsibilities Dr. Libaridian will succeed Professor
Kevork Bardakjian who has served in that position for more than a
decade. Dr. Bardakjian is Marie Manoogian Professor of Armenian
Language and Literature. Dr. Bardakjian’s most recent work, `A
Reference Guide to Modern Armenian Literature: 1500-1920′ (Wayne State
University, 2000), is now considered the standard in the field. In a
special letter written on behalf of the International Institute which
houses the Armenian Studies Program and a large number of regional
study centers, Professor Tessler thanked Dr. Bardakjian for his
unusually long and fruitful service.
With two endowed chairs, lecture series, conferences and special
projects, the Armenian Studies Program at the University of Michigan is
considered one of the best programs in the Diaspora. In addition to
Bardakjian and Libaridian, the core faculty for the Armenian Program on
the Ann Arbor campus includes the highly respected historian Ronald
Suny, the first holder of the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian
History and founding director of the Armenian Studies Program. Suny is
currently Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political
History and Professor Emeritus of Political Science and History,
University of Chicago. His latest work, The Cambridge History of
Russia, Volume iii: The Twentieth Century, was released in 2007. The
University of Michigan system also houses, on its Dearborn campus, the
Armenian Research Center founded by Dr. Dennis Papazian, and currently
led by Professor Ara Sanjian.
Professor Tessler stated that Professor Libaridian’s appointment, for
the usual three year term, to begin on September 1, 2007, was based on
recommendations from relevant faculty and administrators in the
University system and that the change of directorship was routine for
such centers and programs.
Professor Libaridian has been teaching at the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor since 2001. He holds the Alex Manoogian Chair of Modern
Armenia History; his courses cover Armenian and Caucasus history and
politics. In addition to his teaching in the Department of History,
Libaridian is affiliated with the Center for Russian and East European
Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies and
the Center for European Studies. Prior to his return to academia,
Libaridian served in the administration of the first President of
Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrossian, from 1991-1997. Prior to his work in
Armenia he was director (and co-founder) of the Zoryan Institute for
Contemporary Armenian Research and Documentation in Cambridge, Mass.,
editor of the Armenian Review and director of the ARF/Dashnaktsutiun
Archives in Boston. He has taught and published extensively.
Libaridian’s 1999 The Challenge of Statehood was published in English,
Armenian, French and Turkish. His latest book, Modern Armenia (2004)
has just been released in paperback; a French edition of the volume is
expected to be released in Paris in September. Libaridian is currently
working on two new volumes: `Anatomy of Conflict. Nagorno Karabakh and
the New World Order’ and `In the Search of the Savior: Armenian
Liberation Ideology from the 16th to the 19th Centuries.’