MITAS was thrilled to celebrate Dr. Noubar Afeyan, Leader and Philanthropist at a Gala Benefit for the Endowed Fund for Care of Armenian Heritage Park on The Greenway, Boston.
https://www.armenianheritagepark.org/
"Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have offered hope and refuge for immigrants looking to begin new lives. This park is a gift to the people of the Commonwealth and the City of Boston from the Armenian-American community of Massachusetts.
The sculpture is offered is offered in honor of the one and one-half million victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. May it serve in remembrance of all genocides that have followed, and celebrate the diversity of communities that have re-formed in the safety of these shores."
On the last photo: Siranush Babakhanova and Teni Apelian, a star of Armenian acapella (check out the amazing Zulal Trio if you haven't yet!) is an indirect MITAS member. Her father, her brother in law and her husband are all MIT graduates! We can't wait to have a chance to hear her amazing voice on a scene at MIT!
MITAS was incredibly happy to celebrate 65th anniversarry of National Association for Armenian Studies and Research - NAASR.
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), one of the world’s leading Armenian Studies centers, promotes knowledge of Armenian culture, history, and identity, and connects scholars with a broad public worldwide to build a global community.
At this pivotal moment, NAASR celebrated 65 years of achievement while transforming our goals for the future to welcome the next generation and launch a beautiful, new, state-of-the-art research center and gathering place. One of the supporters is our MIT Armenian Professor Noubar Afeyan.
The Gala was the centerpiece of the Grand Opening weekend marking NAASR’s new era. We gathered to celebrate and secure the future at their Gala.
The highlights were:
PERFORMANCE BY OPERATIC SENSATION:
Isabel Bayrakdarian <3 <3 <3 (some tiny videos with her attached)
ACCOMPANIED BY: THE BORROMEO STRING QUARTET
DISTINGUISHED HONOREE: DR. VARTAN GREGORIAN <3 <3 <3
President, The Carnegie Corporation of New York.
MASTER OF CEREMONIES: DAVID IGNATIUS
Columnist for the Washington Post and Novelist
As well as these amazing photos of the afterparty by Yerevan Boston! More pics to come <3. On pictures: Edward Poghosyan, George Stepaniants, Siranush Babakhanova.
MIT Armenian Society is full of new members from both undergraduate and graduate cohorts. We are congratulating everyone for making it to this amazing Fall semester! We hope it stays this sunny in our hearts throughout the upcoming winter!
Also we are very happy that MIT GTL (Global Teaching Labs) are relaunched this IAP in collaboration with TUMO Center. Apply with MISTI Armenia!
2019 marks the 150th birth anniversaries of Komitas, the Father of Armenian classical music, and Hovhannes Tumanian, Armenia’s famed poet, along with the 200th anniversary of Nahapet Rusinian, a writer whose work was instrumental in developing the Western branch of the Armenian language. MIT Armenian Society in honored the memory of these great individuals with song and dance performances from MITAS President Siranush Babakhanova, Natalie&Isabel Tenekedjian and Mary Galstian. This year marks yet another anniversary: one year ago, peaceful protests in Armenia brought a democratic government to power. The new administration promises an economic miracle driven by reforms in science and education. At our panel discussion, two Armenian professors at MIT, Dr. Daron Acemoglu and Dr. Areg Danagoulian provided their perspectives on the topic From Inclusive Politics to a Technologically Advanced Economy: Armenia’s Way Forward.
MITAS hosted Marian Mesrobian MacCurdy, a prominent researcher of Operation Nemesis for our commemorative event of the Armenian Genocide. Operation Nemesis was a covert operation by Armenian patriots to execute the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, including Talaat, Djemal and Behaeddin Shakir. Marian shared with us her knowledge on the Operation, the story of her grandfather’s involvement and its legacy among successive generations of Armenian people. MITAS expresses Marian a deep appreciation for discovering and preserving her family archive with invaluable materials authored by the participants of Nemesis.
For more information about her work, please click here to see her personal website.
On April 5th, 2019, we had the honor of hosting Ms. Anna Hakobyan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s spouse. Organized by MITAS and co-hosted by the Harvard University Armenian Student Association, the welcome lunch featured Armenian students, faculty and alumni of Harvard and MIT. We enjoyed a lively discussion about the My Step Foundation, a charitable educational initiative headed by Ms. Hakobyan and managed by executive director Mr. Hovhannes Ghazaryan. After an exchange of ideas and an insight on the foundation’s plans from Ms. Hakobyan and Mr. Ghazaryan, MITAS members showed them around MIT and introduced them to the campus culture.
Lerna Ekmekçioğlu studies pioneering Armenian women of the 19th and 20th centuries — and helps other scholars enter her field.
Vernatun (penthouse in Armenian ) is the name of a club of Armenian intellectuals, which included Hovhannes Tumanyan, Komitas and Levon Shant. Inspired by them, MITAS hosted an Armenian networking and community bonding event at MIT’s Skyroom Penthouse. Attendants included Armenian students from Harvard and Tufts, along with many more community members.
Professor Ani Aprahamian was appointed Director of A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (formerly known as Yerevan Physics Institute) in April 2018. She is the first woman and the first diasporan Armenian to hold this important position. Ani is also the Friemann Professor of Nuclear Physics at the University of Notre Dame, an outstanding researcher in her field and diaspora-born Armenian woman whose grandmother was a Genocide survivor. She visited MIT and shared the work she does to advance science in Armenia.
You can learn more about Ani and her vision in her interview to Mediamax.
With more than 100 guests from MIT campus and the Armenian community in Greater Boston Area attending, Armenia: From Genocide to Republic turned into a discussion and celebration of Armenia. In the first part of the event, our panelists, who included Dr. Areg Danagoulian (Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT ), Dr. Hayk Demoyan (Director, The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute), Dr. Ara Balikian (Chairman, AGBU New England District Committee), Dr. Lerna Ekmekcioglu (Professor of History, MIT) , Dr. Christina Maranci (Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture, Tufts University) and Dr. Marc Mamigonian (Director of Academic Affairs, NAASR ), provided valuable insights on how we should envision the future of the country, ranging from women’s right to technological advancement. The panel discussion was followed by a cultural show with dance performances and songs. Among them was a three dimensional sculptural installation by Arevik Tserunyan, Artist in Residence at the Armenian Museum of America. Titled Amper (Clouds in Armenian), it explores the connection between the devastating experience of the Armenian Genocide, the deportation of survivors and their subsequent rebirth.
More than a century has passed since the Armenian Genocide by Ottoman Turkey in 1915, but the Armenian community in the United States and throughout the world still has a long way to go to educate the public about this grave crime against humanity. Members of the MIT Armenian Society (MITAS) in collaboration with the Armenian Museum of America organized an Armenian Genocide commemoration exhibit, called 103 Years of Denial, to address this task within the walls of MIT. The keystone of the exhibit was Amper (Clouds in Armenian), an art project by Arevik Tserunyan, Artist in Residence at the Armenian Museum of America. Her work transcended the boundaries of traditional artistic media presenting sculptures, installations and video art to focus on the survival of the Armenian people and their subsequent renaissance. Held on the morning and afternoon of May 2nd, 2018, the exhibit was showcased in the famous Infinite Corridor at MIT under the gaze of hundreds of students and faculty. In addition, it featured explanatory posters designed by MITAS president Siranush Babakhanova highlighting facts, figures and maps about the colossal scale of massacres and deportations the Armenian population was subject to.
For the whole duration of the exhibit MITAS members and the artist answered questions from the public, shared personal stories and guided visitors to additional sources about the Genocide. Armenian food and desserts were provided as another way of introducing the Armenian culture to guests. Both the factual posters and the fictionalized artwork achieved another step on the way to educate the public about one of the darkest times in human history.
Members of MITAS with Tavitian Scholars of the Fletcher School at Tufts at our annual mixer.
The Velvet Revolution in 2018 was neither a Color Revolution, nor an Armenian echo of the Arab Spring. So what was it? Daron Acemoğlu, a famous Turkish-Armenian scholar and Professor of Economics at MIT, gave his perspective on how the country’s new leadership should move forward (watch from 1 h 51 min).
In an interview to Mediamax, Dr. Areg Danagoulian, Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, talked about current tendencies in physics, Armenia’s ties with scientists abroad, issues of education and science and the prospects of science in Armenia. Link to full interview.
