Prof. Kevork Bardakjian Honored with Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Bardakjian was forced to prepare language textbooks, since when he entered the field, these were scant. In 1977 he published A Textbook of Modern Western Armenian, with Robert Thomson. In 1999, he and Bert Vaux published Eastern Armenian: A Textbook.

In 2000, he published A Reference Guide to Modern Armenian Literature, 1500-1920 (2000). It is now out of print and as he is unable to continue it to the present period. Bardakjian suggested, “Maybe it should be put online and people could contribute, with supervision, sending in at the least bibliographies.”

While still at Harvard, Bardakjian prepared a concise overview of the work of the Mkhitarist Catholic Armenian brotherhood, titled The Mekhitarist Contributions to Armenian Culture and Scholarship (1976).

His thesis was on the political and social satire of the Ottoman Armenian writer Hagop Baronian and he published a related work, an Armenian-language volume titled The Historical Figures and Events in Some of Hagop Baronian’s Allegorical Works, in 1980. Bardakjian may eventually turn his thesis itself into a book.

Bardakjian at present is supervising the work of seven graduate students on topics that range as widely as his own research interests. He stresses their learning various empirical research tools such as languages. He is also the language coordinator for the Department of Near Eastern studies and president of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS).

Bardakjian was involved in SAS from its inception and has served in various high-level positions over the years. His goals as president include the creation of a permanent endowment, broadening the participation of its membership in conferences in various fields, creating an online encyclopedia of the diaspora on the Wikipedia model, an online page for posting translations relevant for Armenology that would allow comments and review and an Internet site for members to respond to Armenological questions from the public. He wants to recruit as many supporting members as possible who do not vote in the society but have an interest in learning more about Armenology.

An independent biannual SAS conference or workshop and the funding of the participation of promising PhD students from Armenia in the Middle Eastern Studies Association annual conference are two other SAS projects for which Bardakjian needs funding. One of the main reasons funding has been so difficult, Bardakjian feels, “is the old tradition that the community rallies around the church, not secular institutions.”

However, his efforts have already been crowned with some success and he hopes to continue to improve SAS’s finances. Perhaps the most ambitious of Bardakjian’s administrative projects is the creation of an institute of Armenian studies, which would create employment for new doctoral students in Armenology and aid in the development of the field. If any new chairs are created in Armenian studies, Bardakjian feels that the agreements or contracts for these chairs should very clearly define the purpose for which they are being established, so that the donated money will only be used for the promotion of Armenian studies and not other fields, unlike at some programs at present. Bardakjian also wishes to support the teaching of Armenian in the US, especially of Western and Classical Armenian, which recently seems to be deteriorating. SAS might be able to find federal support for this.

When asked about attacks by some scholars in Armenia on the motivations and scholarship of academics outside of the homeland, Bardakjian replied, “I’m against having public arguments with them. I want to ignore them and continue to work with scholars in Armenia. There are so many good scholars that don’t share the views that these people have expressed and secondly, we have to come to terms with the fact that there will always be people like this. We should not let the atmosphere be contaminated and should avoid engaging in public polemics.”

Aside from participating in various lectures and conferences, Bardakjian is busy with multiple academic projects at present. He is editing a volume froma conference on the Armenian apocalyptic tradition together with Sergio La Porta and burnishing the first draft of his translation of the lengthy Chronology of Grigor Daranaghtsi (Kemakhtsi). Bardakjian chose it because, he said, “it tells us of Armenian peasants, their relations with Turks, their daily routines and problems. It gives us insights into the daily life of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and how things actually worked in the Empire, as well as the difficulties the various nationalities therein faced. He covered the period from 1596 to 1638 or 1639.”

Bardakjian has been working on this daily for the last four or five years. He is preparing a history of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, which he started about eight years ago. Bardakjian has been interested in this topic for an even longer time, having published a book chapter on it in 1982. He waited 25 years but finally obtained permission to delve into the Ottoman Prime Ministry Archives in Istanbul. Bardakjian gave a series of lectures on Armenian identity at Columbia University as part of the Takakjian Lectures, which he wants to revise into a book, and some lectures on the post- Cilician period, as well as his thesis on Baronian, that may also turn into separate volumes. If he is able to accomplish even a small part of what he has on his plate now, he will be enriching Armenology in English greatly.