The All-Armenian Student Association was honored to host Artyom Tonoyan, Christina Maranci, and Simon Maghakyan as guest speakers for a panel discussion on November 20, 2022 as part of the All-ASA's first annual Artsakh Awareness Month.
Artyom Tonoyan is a historian, sociologist, and writer specializing in the study of religion and nationalism in the South Caucasus and the Artsakh conflict. He is a visiting professor of Global Studies at Minnesota’s renowned Hamline University. He has also served as a research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. His articles have been featured in several academic journals including Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Society, and Modern Greek Studies Yearbook, among others. He has been a frequent guest on the BBC, France 24, CivilNet, and other outlets. His most recent book, titled Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press analyzes Moscow’s understanding of the Artsakh conflict through a careful, comprehensive investigation of articles, eyewitness accounts and interviews. He is currently working on a new book charting the social, historical, and religious backgrounds of the Artsakh conflict.
Christina Maranci is Harvard University’s Mashtots Chair of Armenian Studies. She is the first person of Armenian descent, and the first woman to hold the position. Maranci has also held teaching positions at several world-renowned universities, including at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Tufts University. She has published several books about Armenian art and architecture, the most recent of which, entitled The Art of Armenia: An Introduction, published in 2018, was the first English-language introduction to Armenian Art. Maranci is a world-renowned expert in medieval Armenian history, and has conducted timely and groundbreaking research about the preservation and history of ancient Armenian heritage sites. She has been featured on the Wall Street Journal, The Conversation, Hyperallergic, and the National Public Radio’s Open Source show. She was also recently elected the President of the Society for Armenian Studies.
Simon Maghakyan is a Denver-based researcher and organizer. His civic tenure includes nonpartisan service at Colorado’s legislature, human rights monitoring and advocacy at Amnesty International USA, community development for 18 ANCA Western Region states, as well as leadership at Eastern Prelacy’s Save Armenian Monuments initiative and on the Western Diocese Artsakh Heritage Committee. Maghakyan is a lecturer at the University of Colorado Denver, non-resident PhD student in heritage crime at Great Britain’s Cranfield University, and Visiting Scholar at Tufts University. His initiatives include the Colorado State Capitol Armenian Genocide Khachkar Memorial, Djulfa.com, and the research firm Heritage Intel. Maghakyan’s writing has appeared in numerous media outlets, including Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. His collaborative 2019 Hyperallergic and 2021 The Art Newspaper investigative exposés of Azerbaijan’s cultural genocide in Nakhichevan have been cited in Armenia’s International Court of Justice case against Azerbaijan.