Armenian and East Christian Studies

Photo courtesy Walters Art Museum

This track focuses on the history, religion, literature, and material culture of Armenians and their relations to other East Christian traditions. It is expansive and interdisciplinary in scope, highlighting the connectedness of Armenians to a range of cultures from antiquity to modernity. The track lays special emphasis on the late antique and medieval eras, which saw the formation of an Armenian Christian identity and distinctive traditions and practices. The track also includes study of the Armenian experience in the Ottoman and Safavid empires, the material culture of Armenian trade networks extending across the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, and the emergence of Armenian diasporas. Students shall learn to employ textual, visual, and material culture in their research by exploring relations between written traditions and their material manifestations; epigraphy and architecture; images and theological argument; and liturgical ritual and sacred landscape. Students will also be expected to broaden their interests and areas of expertise beyond Armenia, in both language learning and in coursework in related areas and cultures.

The Armenian Studies program is housed in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations; courses and advising in Armenian art are also offered through the History of Art and Architecture. Partners include faculty in the History of Art and Architecture, the Harvard Divinity School, the Committee on the Study of Religion, Dumbarton Oaks, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Medieval Studies, and the Committee on Byzantine Studies. The Harvard Libraries, including Dumbarton Oaks, hold the most extensive Armenological collection in the United States. These holdings include thousands of Armenian-language titles, as well as Armenian medieval manuscripts and early printed books. With Harvard’s location adjacent to Watertown, one of the oldest diasporan centers of Armenians in North America, local resources for Armenian studies abound. The track offers rich opportunities for firsthand work with Armenian manuscripts and other objects at Harvard and in nearby collections. Those who wish to pursue work in archives will find several important resources in proximity: the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), an academic center; the Armenian Museum and Library of America; Project Save, a photographic archive; the Armenian Cultural Foundation; and many more community organizations, each with its own archive. There are no fewer than five Armenian churches in the immediate area. Neighboring institutions near Harvard, including MIT, Tufts, Boston University, and Clark University, possess endowed chairs and/or professors in Armenian Studies.

The track sponsors an active calendar of events including lectures and workshops, which have been co-sponsored with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), History of Art and Architecture, the Medieval Studies Committee, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Anthropology, the Armenian Law Students Association, the Harvard College Armenian Student Association, the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research, and the Society for Armenian Studies.

History

Armenian Studies at Harvard was inaugurated in 1959, when the National Association of Armenian Studies and Research established the first chair of Armenian Studies in the United States and the first Harvard professorship to be endowed by a community organization. The first incumbent was Robert W. Thomson, during whose tenure the position became the Mashtots Chair, named after the celebrated fifth-century saint and inventor of the Armenian alphabet. The second chairholder was James R. Russell, who held the position from 1992 to 2022. Associated faculty have also included Avedis K. Sanjian (1961–1965) and Kevork B. Bardakjian (1974–1987). In 2022, Christina Maranci was appointed the third Mashtots Professor.

Photo Courtesy Walters Art Museum

People

Prof. Christina Maranci, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, is the primary advisor of the program. In her position jointly held between Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the History of Art and Architecture, Maranci explores the visual, material, and built culture of Armenia, ancient to modern, within an interdisciplinary context.

Prof. Charles M. Stang, NELC Faculty Associate, Professor Early Christian Thought, Harvard Divinity School, and Director for the Center of World Religions

Plan of Study

General Requirements

Students are required to complete 16 courses: 2 Foundational courses; 6 additional courses in Armenian and Eastern Christian studies as defined below; 4 courses in another NELC or NELC-related language; and 4 electives.

2 Foundational Courses

Required: ARMENST 111 Art and Culture of Armenia (Maranci)

1 of the following 2 courses depending on your research interest and direction.

Religion 2432: History of Early Christianity

HAA 310A: Methods and Theory of Art History

6 Additional Courses in Armenian and East Christian Studies from the following list:

ARMENST Writing on Art in Armenia (Maranci)

ARMENST Armenian Manuscripts (Maranci)

ARMENST Ghost City: Ani (Maranci)

ARMENST Armenian Liturgical Textiles (Maranci)

ARMENST Introduction to Armenian Literature in Translation (Gulesserian)

ARMENST Contemporary Armenian Culture (Gulesserian)

ARMENST Armenia in Late Antiquity: Texts, contexts, and material culture (Maranci, 2025)

HAA 147P Popular Beliefs and the Formation of Pilgrimage Sites in the Mediterranean (Ioli Kalavrezou)

HDS 1761 Early Christian Apocrypha (J. Gregory Given)

HDS 1260 History of Early Christianity (Giovanni Bazzana)

HDS 2019 Women, Power, and Freedom in Orthodox Christian Thought (Ashley Purpura)

HDS 1563 Beyond the Canon: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and Other Outside Books (Annete Yoshiko Reed)

HDS 3121 Lives of the Special Dead (Kimberly Paton)

HIST 80G Travelers to Byzantium (Dimiter Angelov)

HIST 1035 Byzantine Civilization (Dimiter Angelov)

HIST 2035 Topics in Byzantine History: Seminar (Dimiter Angelov)

HIST 1935 Byzantine Imperialism (Dimiter Angelov)

REL 1398B Philosophy in the Desert: Evagrius of Pontus’ Gnostic Trilogy (Charles Stang)

HDS 1759 Alexandria (Charles Stang and Paul Kosmin, Classics)

REL 2431 Neoplatonism 1: Plotinus (Charles Stang)

REL 2433 Late Neoplatonism (Charles Stang)

REL 1401 Early Christian Thought 1: The Greek Tradition (Charles Stang)

REL 1420 Early Christian Thought 3: The Syriac Tradition (Charles Stang)

4 courses in a NELC or NELC-related language, including (but not limited to) Greek, Arabic, Persian, Otoman Turkish, Syriac, and Coptic.

Remote courses in Classical Armenian are available upon coordination with advisor.

Ability to work with Armenian sources (including classical and/or modern Armenian) is a prerequisite for admission to the program, and an interest in material culture is advantageous. Students pursuing a graduate degree in Armenian Studies are required to meet the general graduate requirements for all students pursuing graduate degrees in the Department of Near Eastern Language and Civilizations, including the knowledge of one departmental language in addition to Armenian, and reading knowledge of two modern languages, one of which must be French or German.

3 Electives (below are some related courses of interest):

ANTHRO 2020 GIS & Spatial Analysis In Archaeology (Jason Ur)

ANTHRO 2211 Archaeology and Heritage (Bill Fash)

ARABIC 152: Introduction to Quran and Hadith (Shady Nasser)

ARABIC 246R Sicily, Spain (al-Andalus), and Maghreb in the Arab Mediterranean (William Granara)

CLS-STDY 172 Romanness after Rome (Jan Ziolkowski)

COMPLIT 114 Mysticism and Literature (Giron Negron)

GENED 1088 The Crusades and the Making of East and West (Dimiter Angelov)

HAA 147P Popular Beliefs and the Formation of Pilgrimage Sites in the Mediterranean (Ioli Kalavrezou)

HAA 236 The Living Image in Premodern Art (Seth Estrin)

HAA 12Y Genghis Khan and his Successors: Art in the Wake of the Mongol Conquests (David Roxburgh)

HAA 144M Hagia Sophia: Space and Ceremony (Ioli Kalavrezou)

HAA 143M The Court of Constantinople (Ioli Kalavrezou)

HAA 14K The Roman World in Transition (Ioli Kalavrezou)

HAA 244 Something Rich and Strange: The Materiality of Relics and Reliquaries (Jeffrey Hamburger)

HAA 226V Visual, Material, Architectural Cultures btw East and West (Gulru Necipoglu)

HAA 222N Transregional Connections of Early Otoman Architecture (Gulru Necipoglu)

HAA 81 Art of Monsoon Asia: Interconnected Histories (Jinah Kim)

HAA 126V Arts, Artifacts, Architecture: Otoman Visual and Material Cultures (Gulru Necipoglu)

HDS 1761 Early Christian Apocrypha (J. Gregory Given)

HDS 1732 Messianism in Early Judaism and Christianity (Annete Reed)

HDS 3175 Indian Ocean Islam (Ali Asani)

HDS 2019 Women, Power, and Freedom in Orthodox Christian Thought (Ashley Purpura)

HDS 1468 Jewish Studies 129 Josephus (Shaye Cohen)

HDS 1563 Beyond the Canon: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and Other Outside Books (Annete Yoshiko Reed)

HDS 1534 Papyrology and the New Testament (Giovanni Bazzana)

HDS 2094 The History of Christianity through Biography and Autobiography, c. 150-1150 (Kevin Madigan)

HDS 3068 Introduction to Zoroastrianism (Barakatullo Ashurov)

HDS 3602A Introduction to Islamic Philosophy and Theology: Classical and Medieval Period (Khaled El-Rouayheb)

HDS 3338 The Prophet Muhammad in History, Devotion, and Polemic (Mohsen Goudarzi)

HDS 1982 Scent in Ancient Mediterranean Religions (Kimberley Paton)

HDS 1102 Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (Andrew Teeter)

HDS 1202 Introduction to the New Testament (Benjamin Dunning)

HDS 2432 Coloniality, Race, Catastrophe (Mayra Rivera)

HDS 3309 Solar Theology in the Ancient Mediterranean (Charles Stang)

HIST 1009 The Making of the Modern Middle East (Rosie Bsheer)

HIST 1018 Coffee and the Nighttime: History and Politics, 1400-2020 (Cemal Kafadar)

HIST 2055 Early Medieval History, Archeology, and Archeoscience (Michael McCormick)

HIST 2884 Topics in Ottoman Social and Cultural History (Cemal Kafadar)

ISLAMCIV 110 Major Works of Islamic Civilizations (Khaled El-Rouayheb)

ISLAMCIV 241R Critical Approaches to Studying Indo-Muslim Culture and South Asian Islam (Ali Asani)

MEDVLST 250 At Cross Purposes (Evridiki Georganteli)

MODMDEST 100/200 The Modern Middle East, Real and Imagined (Malika Zeghal)

MODMDEST 108/208 History of Modern Iran and Turkey (Mohammad Sagha)

NEC 107 History of the Book: Using Harvard's Greatest Treasures to Study the Material Text (David Stern)

REL 2800 The Emergence of Islam: Contours and Controversies (Goudarzi)