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HYE SHARZHOOM
Armenian Action
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30
th
Year
March 2009
Vol. 30, No. 3 (105)
Ethnic Supplement to The Collegian
Armenian Studies Program
21st Annual Banquet
featuring a panel discussion on
"United States Foreign Policy in
Armenia and the Caucasus"
with The Honorable John Ordway,
former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia;
Keith Simmons, former USAID Mission Director
in Armenia; and
Bruce Janigian, Vice President,
Development and Government Relations,
American University of Armenia
and celebrating the 30th Anniversary
ofthe Hye Sharzhoom newspaper
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Reeeption-5 PM • Dinner-6 PM
Fort Washington Golf & Country Club
10272 N. Millbrook • Fresno, California
$40 per person • $400 table of ten
$20 Fresno State students
Tenth Annual Armenian Film
Festival Attracts Large Audience
Dr. George Bournoutian Teaches Monday Night Class
ArmS 120T-on Armenian Diaspora and Genocide
Dr. George Bournoutian, center, with students from his Monday night Armenian Studies course.
Photo: Barlow Der Mugrdechian
Hagop Ohanessian
Staff Writer
Dr. George Bournoutian, Profess or of History atlona College in
New York, has been appointed as
the seventh Henry Khanzadian
Kazan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies for the Spring 2009
semester. This semester he is teaching a three-unit course on the Armenian Diaspora and Genocide,
Monday evenings from 6:00-8:50
PM.
The course is primarily focused
on the Armenian Diaspora that be
gan with the fall of the Arshakuni
Kingdom, the first partition of Armenia in the fourth century, and
continuing through the political
upheavals of the twentieth century,
up to the present day. Prior to his
arrival in Fresno, I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Bournoutian.
When asked about his main research and areas of expertise, Dr.
Bournoutian stated, "Since Iona
does not have an Armenian course,
I teach the history of the Middle
East and Eastern Europe at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
However, I have been invited to
teach Armenian history at Tufts,
Columbia, New York University,
Rutgers, University of Connecticut, and Ramapo College. My research is primarily on the history of
Eastern Armenia from 1450 to
1850. Except for my textbook, A
Concise History of the Armenian
People, the rest of my books are on
the Iranian and Russian rule of eastern Armenia (Erevan,
Nakhichevan, Karabagh, and
Ganja) in those 400 years. For the
last ten years I have concentrated
my efforts on translating rare primary sources into annotated English versions for the benefit of
those who cannot read the originals."
For the past thirty years, Dr.
Bournoutian has been fortunate to
lead study groups (students, faculty, staff and friends) to every
continent, including Antarctica. He
has visited some 125 countries,
some of them more than once, always seeking evidence of Armenian Diasporan communities.
Professor Bournoutian believes
in research and seminars that en-
couragestudentparticipation, rather
than rote memorization or repeating what the professor presents.
Eachstudentinhisclass will choose
a topic on the Diaspora or the Geno-
see Bournoutian page 5
Dr. Ronald T. Marchese Discusses "Constantinople
Style" of Armenian Art in Illustrated Presentation
Left to Right: Director Gohar Barseghyan, Stepan Kyutunyan,
Kristine Shamlikian, and Hagop Ohanessian.
Hagop Ohanessian
Staff Writer
The Armenian Film Festival at
Fresno State annually showcases
films with an Armenian theme,
concerning Armenian issues, or
those that have been directed by
Armenians around the country or
around the world. This year, the
Armenian Studies Program received numerous films that were
evaluated and chosen for the 10th
Annual Armenian Film Festival.
This year the Film Festival took
place at7:00PM on Friday, February 20, in the Industrial Technology Building, Room 101, on campus. The Festival is supported, in
part, with funds from the University Student Union Diversity
Awareness Program. Three films
were featured: A Road Less Traveled: The Handjian Story directed
by Denise Gentilini; Behind the
see Film Festival page 7
Marissa Isquierdo
Staff writer
On Wednesday, February 11 at
7:30 PM, Prof. Barlow Der
Mugrdechian, Coordinator of the
Armenian Studies Program welcomed Fresno State distinguished
alumnus, Dr. Ronald Marchese,
who gave a presentation titled "Armenian Constantinople: Church,
Society, and Culture" to an audience which consisted of Fresno
State students, professors, family,
and friends in the Alice Peters Auditorium at Fresno State. Dr.
Marchese is Professor of Ancient
History and Archaeology at the
University of Minnesota in Duluth,
where he has taught for the last
twenty-five years.
At this presentation, audience
members learned that the Armenian community in Constantinople/
Istanbul made a significant contribution to the practice and creation
of religious artthroughoutthe 17th,
18th, and 19th centuries. Accord
ing to Dr. Marchese, who has been
doing scholarly research on the
collections at the Armenian Orthodox Church in Istanbul forthe past
thirteen years, Armenians developed their "own unique style of
sacred art," the "Constantinople
Style."
"The Constantinople Style' can
be found from the monumental to
the miniature, in architecture to the
intricate details of textiles. What
separates the Constantinople Style'
from other forms of religious art is
its opulence," Dr. Marchese stated,
whileadding, "The Constantinople
Style' reveals the Armenians commitment to detail, as well as their
tenacity to maintain a social and
cultural identity through the objects they produced and donated to
the Church."
Using a slide projector and
power point simultaneously, all in
attendance were fully enthralled at
the sacred images. These images
consisted of the interior and exterior of churches as well as religious
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Dr. Ronald Marchese
objects such as mitres and crowns,
collars and lappets, altar curtains,
crosses, and textiles. Dr. Marchese
talked about how textiles are an
integral part of the Armenian material culture, both secular and religious. Weaving, embroidery, and
needle lace were the domain of
women and in the early part of the
19th century, embroider}' schools
were established to fill the growing
needs of the church. The embroider}' of gold on altar curtains and
crowns was amazing to see and
see Marchese page 7