History

Purpose and Activity

Leading staff

The Armenian Research Center in Humanities (ARCH) was established in September 1993 with the aim of examining the life and development of the Armenian society and diaspora in light of modern social sciences. At the core of the ARCH’s work have been disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies covering the entire spectrum of social sciences and humanities.

The scholars affiliated with the ARCH have sought to address the compelling issues of modernity and to do so overcoming the limited frames of local resources and conventional inquiry, yet also avoiding the imitation and reproduction of standardized “modernizing” solutions.

The first Presidium of the ARCH brought together Ashot Voskanyan (PhD in Philosophy, President), Prof. Levon Harutyun Abrahamyan (Dr. habil. in Philosophy, Vice President), Academician Prof. Sen Arevshatyan (Dr. habil. in Philosophy), Academician Prof. Gagik Sargsyan (Dr. habil. in History), Prof. Vladimir Barkhudaryan (Dr. habil. in History), Prof. Aram Grigoryan (Dr. habil. in Philology), and meritorious artist painter Grigor Khanjyan. The first secretary of the ARCH was Artsvi Bakhchinyan (PhD in Philology).

Initially, the ARCH’s research was focused on the complex theme of Armenian identity and forms of national self-organization.

The ARCH held its first conferences in April 1994 (jointly with the Free University of Humanities, Yerevan) and in October, titled Armenians: Identity and Self-Consciousness.

  • The ARCH’s first international conference titled The Problem of National Identity and Modernity was held in April 1995.
  • The same year, the first issue of the ARCH Annual – Identity– came out based on the outcomesof the conference.
  • In 2002, the Annual Problems of Identity was published with a major contribution from the ARCH members, but, for some unfortunate non-academic reasons, the ARCH was not credited on the cover page.
  • In Autumn 2003, the Center, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, organized an international conference titled Armenia on the Way to Europe.
  • In 2005, the peer reviewed versions of the conferences papers yielded another issue of the ARCH Annuals Armenia on the Way to Europe.
  • In 2017, the ARCH was re-registered in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Armenia.

 

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