Bedross Der Matossian, professor in the Department of History, had his op-ed article, "Armenians, too, have a formidable history in the Holy Land," published in The Christian Post and The Times of Israel. The article in Hebrew was number one on the Times of Israel website.
He also recently led the Society for Armenian Studies 50th Anniversary Conference, an international event focused on Armenian history hosted by Harvard University and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), which he raised over $40,000 for. The three-day conference brought together more than fifty scholars from Armenia, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, England, Australia, and the United States.
Photo: Society for Armenian Studies 50th Anniversary Conference participants in Sackler Lecture Hall, Harvard University. Photo by Ani Hovannisian.
"The momentous international conference celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS)," Der Matossian said. "This is a huge milestone in the history of SAS. The breadth, the scope, and the multidisciplinary approaches of the papers that were delivered at the conference demonstrate how SAS has evolved from a handful of scholars to become the most important academic society in the Western Hemisphere with cutting-edge approaches to Armenian Studies."
James Le Sueur, professor and chair in the department, called Der Matossian "extraordinary."
"Bedross does truly cutting-edge and fearless research, [and is] a fierce human rights defender," he said. "Superstar is a dramatic understatement in his case."
Der Matossian, who also serves as vice chair of the department and Hymen Rosenberg Professor in the Judaic Studies program, grew up in Jerusalem and and graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His areas of interest include ethnic politics in the Middle East, inter-ethnic violence in the Ottoman Empire, Palestinian history, and the history of the Armenian Genocide. In 2023, his book Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century was published by University of Nebraska Press.
