In 1983, the late Dr. Ara Vahan Dumanian and Edma Dumanian, together with the United Armenian Cultural Association, gave a gift to establish an endowment for Armenian studies at the University of Chicago. Over the following decades Dr. and Mrs. Dumanian continued to support the endowment, which is now known as the Dumanian Armenian Studies Fund.
Today, the Dumanian Armenian Studies Fund allows MES to bring renowned scholars to campus every year to teach a class on a topic in Armenian studies and give a public lecture on their work.
The Dumanian Armenian Studies Fund has been central to establishing MES and the University of Chicago as one of the premiere institutions for Armenian studies in the United States.
Past Dumanian Visiting Professors
- 2024 Umit Kurt
- 2023 Yasar Tolga Cora
- 2022 Ohannes Kilicdagi
- 2021 Sylvia Alajaji
- 2019 Tsolin Nalbantian
- 2018 Melissa Bilal
- 2017 Giusto Traina
- 2016 Lerna Ekmekçioğlu
- 2015 Kathryn Franklin
- 2014 Bedross Der Matossian
- 2013 Elyse Semerdjian
- 2012 Tasha Vorderstrasse
- 2011 Sebouh Aslanian
- 2009 David Calonne
- 2008 Robert Hewsen
- 2007 Ruben S. Badalyan
- 2005 Ioanna Rapti
- 2004 Mkrtich Zardaryan
- 2001 Christina Maranci
- 2000 Margaret Sarkissia
Dumanian Lectures
"Defending the ‘Honor’ of Adapazarı: An Invitation to a Pogrom and the Microdynamics of Intercommunal Relations in Late Ottoman Empire" Dr. Umit Kurt, 5/9/2024
"The Global Lives of Diamonds and Precious Gems: Early Modern Armenian Firms in the Luxury Commodity Trade of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean (17th-18th cc.)," Dr. Sona Tajiryan, 4/20/2023
"Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province," Dr. Umit Kurt, 2/9/2023
"Live Together Die Together: Conscription of Armenians into the Ottoman Army after 1908," Dr. Ohannes Kilicdagi, 5/12/2022
"Revisiting Late Medieval Armenian Geographies and Landscapes," Dr. Rachel Goshgarian, 4/20/2022
"Armenian Futurism" Featuring Kamee Abrahamian, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian, Hrag Vartanian, and Sylvia Alajaji. Public Lecture Delivered on May 20, 2021.
"A Ship With Two Rudders?" Sebouh Aslanian, Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair of Modern Armenian History and Associate Professor in the Department of History at UCLA. Public lecture delivered on Thursday, April 18th, 2019.
"Our Parents Songs: On the Antinomies of Joy in the Armenian Diaspora" Sylvia Alajaji, Associate Professor of Music at Franklin & Marshall College. Public Lecture Delivered on April 22, 2021.
"Armenians Beyond Diaspora: Making Lebanon Their Own," Tsolin Nalbantian, 2019 Dumanian Visiting Professor. Public lecture delivered on Thursday, February 21st, 2019.
“Writing the Art of Armenia” Christina Maranci, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture at Tufts University. Public lecture delivered on January 11th, 2019.
“Never Bow in Servitude: Ottoman Armenian Women's Writings on Antimilitarism and People's Right to Self-defense," Melissa Bilal, 2018 Visiting Dumanian Professor. Public lecture delivered on May 24, 2018.