About
Research Interests: Modern and contemporary Armenian literature; world literature; diaspora; postcolonial studies; translation
Languages: Armenian (Classical; Modern Eastern and Western); Russian; French
My research focuses on 20th century Armenian literature and how writers creatively and differently engage with Armenian and non-Armenian traditions across locales as diverse as Istanbul, Paris, and Soviet Yerevan. I read my authors as part of a transnational network of Armenian literature that challenges dominant and eurocentric frameworks of world literature, and at the same time complicates traditional Armenian literary histories.
I have published several translations, including Zabel Yesayan's 1918 book The Agony of a People, which recounts the testimony of an Armenian genocide survivor named Haig Toroyan, as well as Yeghishe Charents' 1920 poem "Vision of Death", among other works. I also do my own writing in Armenian, and have co-published a book of correspondences called Sahmanakhagh(kht) - Hayerenn u hayerene (Border-play: The Armenian and the Armenian) with Anahit Ghazaryan. This book reflects on growing interactions today between Eastern Armenian—the dialect of Soviet and post-Soviet Armenia—and my native Western Armenian, the Constantinople dialect that became the standard of many Armenians in dispersion after the genocide.
Prior to beginning a PhD, I also published on contemporary Eastern Armenian literature, which I had researched as an MA student, also at Michigan.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions or if you have any interest in my work!
