“Armenian Art: Current Directions and Future Goals” by Dr. Christina Maranci

FRESNO — Dr. Christina Maranci, Mashtots Chair of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, will speak on “Armenia Art: Current Directions and Future Goals” at 7:00PM on Saturday, April 15, 2023, in the Smittcamp Alumni House, 2625 E. Matoian Way (Shaw and Maple Aves.), on the Fresno State campus. A reception will take place immediately before the lecture from 6:00-7:00PM in the Smittcamp Alumni House.

Dr. Maranci will give the inaugural lecture in the Grace and Paul Shahinian Armenian Christian Art series organized by the Armenian Studies Program. She will give an overview of the study of Armenian art in the twentieth century, with an emphasis on how the discipline has changed over the past several decades. She will also discuss the major sub-disciplines in the field and discuss the future goals of the field.

Christina Maranci grew up in a diasporan Armenian family in Westport, Connecticut. She earned a B.A. in art history at Vassar, and an M.A. and Ph.D. at Princeton in the Department of Art and Archaeology. Her work explores the art and culture of Armenia in all aspects, but with special emphasis on the late antique and medieval periods. She is the author of four books and over 100 articles and essays on medieval Armenian art and architecture, including most recently, the Art of Armenia (Oxford UP, 2018). Her 2015 monograph, Vigilant Powers: Three Churches of Early Medieval Armenia (Brepols, 20215) won the Karen Gould Prize for Art History from the Medieval Academy of America and as well as the Sona Aronian Prize for best Armenian Studies monograph from the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). She is co-founder of East of Byzantium, a workshop and lecture series designed to support graduate students working on the Christian East.

The reception and lecture are free and open to the public. Parking is available in Fresno State Lot P1 or P2, near the Smittcamp Alumni House. A parking pass is not required for the Saturday evening presentation.

The presentation will also be live-streamed on YouTube at: https://bit.ly/armenianstudiesyoutube.

For information about upcoming Armenian Studies Program presentations, please follow us on our Facebook page, @ArmenianStudiesFresnoState or at the Program website, https://fresnostate.edu/armenianstudies.