SYDNEY: The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) has announced that one of the pioneering scholars of Armenian studies, Professor Richard Hovannisian will be honoured at this year's ANC-AU Annual Banquet, which will take place at the conclusion of ANC-AU Advocacy Week.
Professor Hovannisian – of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – will be in attendance as a special guest honouree at the ANC-AU Annual Banquet, which takes place on Sunday 21st October 2018, from 5:30pm at The Concourse Chatswood's Civic Pavilion.
The gala event, which also acts as ANC-AU's annual fundraiser, will be MC-ed by legendary Armenian-Australian newsreader and broadcaster, George Donikian. Other highlights will include the annual
ANC-AU Armenian-Australian Community's Friend of the Year award, which will be announced before what will be an audience of distinguished political guests, partners and supporters.
"We look forward to sharing the successes of our community's advocacy efforts at what is the Armenian National Committee of Australia's night of nights, which will be graced by the presence and participation of Professor Richard Hovannisian," said ANC-AU Executive Director, Haig Kayserian. "Professor Hovannisian is a legend among scholars, and will be honoured for educating generations on Armenia's modern history, including the Armenian Genocide and the Armenia's First Republic, over many decades in Australia and beyond."
Professor Richard G. Hovannisian is the first holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, President’s Fellow at Chapman University, and Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Southern California (USC) to work with the Shoah Foundation on Armenian survivor testimonies.
A native of California, he received his B.A. and M.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and Ph.D. in history from UCLA. A member of the UCLA faculty since the 1960s, he organised both the undergraduate and graduate programs in Armenian history and served as the Associate Director of UCLA's Centre for Near Eastern Studies for twenty years.
Professor Hovannisian is a Guggenheim Fellow and has received many honours for his scholarship, civic activities, and support of individual and collective human rights, including several medals and encyclicals from His Holinesses Karekin II and Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia, and from His Holinesses Garegin I and Garegin II of Holy See of Etchmiadzin.
He is a founder and six-time president of the Society for Armenian Studies and has given more than 2,500 lectures and media presentations on Armenia history and issues in 45 countries. Professor Hovannisian represented the State of California on the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) for 15 years, and has served as a consultant to the California State Board of Education, authoring the chapter on the Armenian Genocide in the State's Social Studies Model Curriculum on Human Rights and Genocide. In 1990, he was elected to the Armenian Academy of Sciences, becoming the first social scientist living abroad to be so honoured.
Professor Hovannisian has published more than 30 books, including
Armenia on the Road to Independence and
The Republic of Armenia (in 4 volumes and in Russian and Armenian translations); six volumes on the Armenian Genocide; and fourteen volumes on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces in the Ottoman Empire.
For additional information and to book tables and tickets, please consult the flyer below.
