The effort to bring Armenian Studies to UConn began in 1984 when a small group of volunteers started a fund raising campaign.  In 1993 Dr. Ludmila Haroutunian of Yerevan State University (YSU) made a number of presentations at the University and at meetings with Connecticut’s Armenian-American community. Dr. Haroutunian’s presence at UConn in 1993 was in association with what has become the cornerstone of the UConn-YSU-Armenia relationship, close academic ties between UConn’s School of Social Work and YSU’s Faculty of Sociology.

In 2004, the University of Connecticut received a bequest from the estate of Alice K. Norian, to be used to educate students and the general public about Armenian culture and history, and to gather Armenian-Americans for both these purposes. The first annual Alice K. Norian Lecture, in 2004, was delivered by Dr. Arman J. Kirakossian, Armenian Ambassador to the United States. At this time, stewardship of Armenian Programs at UConn became the responsibility of the Norian Armenian Programs Committee, which is co-chaired by the Dean of the School of Social Work and the Vice President for Global Affairs. Learn more.

Programs Committee

Daniel Adler, Director, UConn Archaeological Field School in Armenian Prehistory, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Zahra Ali, Director of Global Partnerships & Outreach, Global Affairs
William Berentsen, Professor of Geography
Boris Bravo-Ureta, Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics
Guillermo Risatti, Associate Professor of Pathobiology
Nina Rovinelli Heller, Co-Chair, Dean, School of Social Work
Rebecca Thomas, Associate Professor of Policy Practice, School of Social Work
Daniel Weiner, Co-Chair, Vice President for Global Affairs