2002_03 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper March 2002

              March 2002
Hye Sharzhoom
7
KouymjianSabbatical Activities
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scholar. The meetings took place
in Brussels with a jury of non-
Belgian scholars including two
American other than Dr.
Kouymjian, three from England,
two each from France and Germany, and single scholars from the
Netherlands, Sweden and Taiwan.
The award is for one million Belgian francs and is the only Belgian
prize given annual by the king himself. This year's winner was Prof.
Philippe Van Parijs, a specialist in
political philosophy at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve.
In May and June Prof.
Kouymjian was invited by Professor Bernard Coulie, Director of the
Oriental Institute of the Catholic
University of Louvain at Louvain-
la-Neuve, to present a series of six
seminars to doctorate students of
the Institute on the general subject,
"Topics in Armenian History &
Art: The Search for an Identity."
Beginning with two sessions on the
Armenian genocide of 1915, he
explored the question of cultural
identity in the diaspora. The other
topics were on architecture,
codicology, manuscript illumination, and the minor arts. The three-
hour seminars were also regularly
attended by Louvain faculty
For several years Prof.
Kouymjian has been helping the
Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias,
Lebanon organize a major one week
international symposium on Armenian Spiritulaity on the occasion of
the 1700th anniversary ofthe Proclamation of Christianity in Armenia. His Holiness Catholicos Aram
I, asked Dr. Kouymjian to coordinate the event with Rev. Fr. Nareg
Alemezian. The meeting held from
June 25 to a July 1, 2001 brought
together a who's who of scholars,
theologians and high church digni-
Armeniai
taries in Bossey, Switzerland, just
outside of Geneva where the World
Council of Churches has its Ecumenical Institute.
The conference was preside over
by His Holiness Aram, who not
only attended every session and
lecture, but had comments and questions on every paper presented during the six days of sessions in the
isolated retreat over looking
Geneva's famous Lake. Also attending and presiding at one of the
session was His Beatitude Patriarch Mesrop Mutafian of Istanbul.
Other senior clergy included Bishop
Yeznik of the Armenian Diocese
of Russia, Bishop Khajak of
Canada, Bishop Kegham of Greece,
Fr. Prof. Levon Zekyan of Venice,
and representatives of the Armenian Catholic, Armenian Protestant, Russian Orthodox, Roman
Catholic, Coptic and several European Protestant churches. Scholars from the Middle East, Europe
and the United States were present,
among the latter group were Robert Thomson formerly of Harvard
now at Oxford, Abraham Terian of
the St. Nercess Theological Seminary, Peter Cowe of UCLA, and
Michael Connolly of Boston University.
His Holiness Aram asked Prof.
Kouymjian to give the keynote address "Sources and Specificity of
Armenian Spirituality" at the opening of the conference. The talk
presented both an historical perspective for the six-day conference
and more importantly a number of
important problems facing Armenian Christianity today through a
series of questions directed to the
church heads gathered at Bossey.
Throughout the gathering there
were continual references to the
questions he posed in his paper.
On the fourth day of the confer-
llflllliiii
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IrefrucferTomBozir^ce^
dances in countries such as Germany and Japan. He told his
students thai the people really want
to learn Armenian dances because
they are very interested in them.
The students were excited that
people from many different countries, not only Armenians, were
interested in learning about these
dances,        :
Bo/igian\ enthusiastic and
vivacious attitude made the class
a wonderful experience for all of
his students.
the class included, "Amazing
class. So glad 1 took it. f learned a
lot!" "It was great fun and the
dances were very creative," and
"The course was fun. 1 would take
it again." Comments about Tom
Bozigian included. 'He is very
skilled, organized, and enthusiastic." and "The instructor was great
and had a lot of energy."
I'm sure that everyone in the
class would agree that Bozigian's
motivation and dedication to Armenian dance would always be
welcome within the Armenian community of Fresno and elsewhere.
ence, Dr Kouymjian presented a
second paper in the section devoted
to artistic creation in the church
entitled "Armenian Spirituality and
the Arts: Architecture, Painting and
Liturgical Metalwork." He presented some of his recent research
on St. Gregory and especially on
Armenian liturgical vessels.
In August, Dr Kouymjian went
to Geneva for a meeting at the
Musee d'art et histoire on the organization of an exhibit on Armenian
altar curtains from the collection of
Holy Etchmiadzin. The exhibit,
originally scheduled as part of the
celebration of the 1700th anniversary at the Textile Museum in Lyon,
France, but delayed for technical
reasons, will open in 2004 at
Geneva's famous Rath Museum.
In early October the professor
traveled to Los Angeles for two
exhibits, one a major artistic event
devoted to the famous fourteenth
century Gospels of Glajor (now the
property of UCLA) sponsored and
held at the J. Paul Getty Museum,
and the other an exhibit entitled
"Modem Icon: Contemporary Artists and the Legacy of the Armenian Illuminated Manuscript," held
at the Brand Library and Art Center
in Glendale from September 15 to
October 20, 2001, for which he
wrote a preface to the exhibit catalogue.
In the meantime, Prof.
Kouymjian continues his work on
the catalogue of the liturgical treasures of the Armenian Museum at
the Catholicosate in Antelias, Lebanon, research on Armenian book
bindings, and a major study on the
iconography of the Alexander the
Great Romance in Armenian manuscript painting.
More of Dr. Kouymjian's activities will be included in the May
issue of Hye Sharzhoom.
Kennel Bookstore
hasa
wide selection
_°f booksaboutthe
Arnieiiiaii
people, culture,
landscape
and
Please visit our
Located on the lower level
www.kennelbookstoro.com
General Book Department
t      278-4286
Kennel Bookstore
California State University, Fresno
Authors Mark Arax (left) and Berge Bulbulian at Armenian book section opening.
INTERVIEW
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on the Fresno State Basketball team.
As a young kid in high school it was
his dream to play college basketball. When he heard Coach
Tarkanian wanted him to play in
Fresno, Rouben was ecstatic. Since
his arrival at Fresno State Rouben
has developed a great relationship
with Tarkanian and with his teammates. He has been accepted well
within the club and within the community. Since he is originally from
Australia, his teammates have given
him the nickname, "The Thunder
From Down Under." Rouben plans
to obtain his Bachelor of Arts in
Philosophy as well as a Minor in
Armenian Studies.
Hye Sharzoom interviewed
Vesmadian during an exciting time
in his life, while playing basketball
for Fresno State.
Hye Sharzoom: Welcome to
Fresno Rouben. You are so far away
from home-how does it feel for an
Armenian to be playing college
basketball for an Armenian Coach
in largely Armenian populated
area?
Vesmadian: It's really an
honor because I am very happy to
be representing the Armenian community and very fortunate to be
playing for Coach Tarkanian who
is just the best at what he does.
Hye Sharzoom: What made
you want to come to Fresno State?
How did you end up here?
Vesmadian: It was my dream
to play college basketball ever since
I was a freshman in high school. As
I got older and learned more about
my ancestry and heritage I felt it
was something I should never forget no matter what my endeavors.
So when the opportunity arose for
me to be able to establish my college career at such a big basketball
school and with such a great Coach
I thought my prayers had been answered. Coincidently, Coach happens to be Armenian as well, which
played a large part in my decision
to come to Fresno. The large Armenian community, which has always backed me, was also a reason
come to Fresno.
How I ended up here all the
way from Sydney, Australia is a
good question. First, I'd like to
establish that it is very difficult for
any basketball player from Australia to get exposure in the United
States so I was very fortunate that
things went my way. In 19991 had
played at a basketball exposure
camp in New Jersey where I was
selected into the All-Star squad. I
was 16 at the time and only a junior
in high school. Through this camp
I was only being recmited by small
schools on the east coast as nobody
else knew about me. When I returned to Australia and graduated
from high school I had to make a
choice of which school I wanted to
attend and play for. Fortunately,
assistant coach, Danny Tarkanian,
had seen video footage of me and I
was able to get accepted at Fresno
State. From there on my journey
began.
Hye Sharzoom: How has the
Armenian community responded
since your arrival?
Vesmadian: The Armenian
community is great. They are very
supportive and very proud. I enjoy
being a part of the Armenian community. I get approached by a lot of
Armenians asking me all sorts of
questions and just wanting to get to
know me.
Hye Sharzoom: What are your
future goals with Fresno State and
upon graduation?
Vesmadian: My future goals
are to keep working hard everyday
in school and in practice. I plan on
being a good role model for young
Armenians around the world. I am
in a great environment and I am
certain I will succeed if I just keep
working hard. Upon graduating I
plan to obtain a degree in Philosophy and just as importantly in Armenian Studies. I take my Armenian courses at Fresno State very
seriously as it is important to my
family and me. In regards to my
basketball career, who knows where
it will take me after graduation.