Dr. Dickran Kouymjian

By Hye Sharzhoom Staff

        Dr. Michael Ortiz, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Fresno State announced that Dr. Dickran Kouymjian, Haig and Isabel Berberian Chair of Armenian Studies was chosen to receive the 1999 Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching-Distinguished Achievement in Research.
        The award is one of five Provost's awards given annually to faculty. Winners will be honored and formally recognized at a reception on May 13.
        Dickran Kouymjian has a distinguished academic career of more than 40 years. After graduating from Columbia University with a Ph.D. in Armenian Studies (Near Eastern Languages and Cultures), he embarked on a prolific scholarly career.
        He has edited or authored 12 books and monographs (three others are in press) and has published more than 100 scholarly articles. Over the past 40 years he has presented communications at more than 80 major international congresses and symposia, reflecting his interest in the broad arena of Armenian Studies. Those communications were ultimately transformed into articles and books.
        His works have been noted both for the breadth of subject covered and for their penetrating insights into the specific area of study. These have been in the following subjects: oriental studies, numismatics, history, art history, literature, history of Armenian cinema, paleography, codicology and genocide studies.  The diversity of do mains is due to a certain restlessness and pervasive curiosity.
        His efforts in research have also paid dividends in his teaching where he has attracted outstanding students and has directly involved them in his own research.
        In his early career, he concentrated on works dealing with Armenian and Near Eastern history and numismatics and then continued with work in the area of Armenian Art and Armenian architecture. He later expanded his interests to include William Saroyan and the Armenian Diaspora.
        In all of his research there is an inclination to discover and report on areas until now understudied.  Though there is some material he has not yet gotten into print, most of his preliminary articles try to encourage younger scholars to take up the leads he has suggested and to mine what is almost inexhaustible research material.
        Between teaching and administrating a very active Armenian Studies Program, he is engaged in two new, but related, fields of research.  In the year 2001 the world will mark the 1700th anniversary of the founding of the Armenian Church, the oldest Christian church.  He has been delegated by the catholicoses Karekin I of Etchmiadzin, Armenia and Aram I of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon, to organize a number of international conferences and art exhibits.
        For Dr. Kouymjian, research, like teaching, is a habit, a way of life.  He tries to expand the vision of students, while teaching them the principles of investigative research and the classification of knowledge.  In his view of things, this is what university teaching is all about.

Phi Kappa Phi

        The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi honored Dr. Dickran Kouymjian by presenting him with the University Scholar Award as part of their annual induction ceremony held April 20,1999.
        Dr. Kouymjian joined an elite group of individuals in receiving this award. Established by the Fresno State chapter of Phi Kappa Phi in 1996, the University Scholar Award was created to recognize those individuals, who through their scholarly activities or their artistic accomplishments and endeavors, have brought national or international acclaim to the university.  Dr. Kouymjian, who joined the Fresno State faculty in 1977, is an internationally known authority on Armenian art, history and literature.  Dr. Kouymjian was named Fresno State's Outstanding Professor in 1986 and was awarded the Fulbright Senior Lectureship in 1987.