MILAN — Professor Richard G. Hovannisian of UCLA, Chapman University, and the Shoah Foundation at USC has been inducted as a Fellow of the prestigious Accademia Ambrosiana of Milan, Italy. Nominated by the Great Chancellor of the Academy, Archbishop of Milan Cardinal Angelo Scola, for having distinguished himself in the field of Armenian and Oriental Studies, Hovannisian was inducted as a lifetime fellow of the 400 year-old Academy in formal ceremonies held in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana on the evening of November 9, 2015. His diploma was presented by Monsignor Franco Buzzi, president of the Academy.
On November 10, Dr. Hovannisian delivered a memorable inaugural address on the significance of the centenary of the Armenian Genocide and the advances since 1915 in the historiography of the Mets Yeghern (Great Crime) and its significance in comparative perspective. Other talks on Armenian subjects during the three-day assembly were given by invited scholars Marco Bias, Raymond Kevorkian, and Aldo Ferrari. Professor Levon Chookaszian of Yerevan State University also attended as an inductee of the Academy’s Classis Orientalis.
Richard Hovannisian has authored and edited 30 books and nearly 100 articles and chapters on Armenian, Near Eastern, and Caucasian history and culture. He is a Guggenheim fellow, a full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, and a recipient of numerous scholarly, ecclesiastic, civic, and professional awards. He is currently collaborating with the Shoah Foundation on the integration of Armenian survivor testimony into the Foundation’s permanent holdings, while also completing work on the Armenian translation of volumes 3 and 4 of his magnus opus, The Republic of Armenia.
