BELMONT, Mass. — The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in December announced the winners of the 2022 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies: Dr. Ümit Kurt for The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province (Harvard University Press, 2021) and Dr. Khatchig Mouradian for The Resistance Network: The Armenian Genocide and Humanitarianism in Ottoman Syria, 1915–1918 (Michigan State University Press, 2021); and Dr. Abraham Terian for his annotated translation of St. Gregory of Narek’s Matean Օghbergut‘ean (Մատեան Ողբերգութեան) or Book of Lamentation, From the Depths of the Heart (Liturgical Press, 2021). The 2022 awards are for books with a 2021 publication date.
NAASR’s Aronian Book Prizes were established in 2014 by the late Dr. Aronian and Dr. Geoffrey Gibbs, to be awarded annually to outstanding scholarly works in the English language in the field of Armenian Studies and translations from Armenian into English.
NAASR’s Director of Academic Affairs Marc A. Mamigonian commented that “each year it is difficult to make choices for the Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes — there are many superb works coming out from across the wide range of what constitutes Armenian Studies. This is a good problem to have.”
Abraham Terian is the first repeat winner of the Aronian Prize, having received the 2017 award for translation for The Festal Works of St. Gregory of Narek: Annotated Translation of the Odes, Litanies, and Encomia. Terian is professor emeritus of Armenian theology and patristics at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, Armonk, New York. Both The Festal Works of St. Gregory of Narek and From the Depths of the Heart: Annotated Translation of the Prayers of St. Gregory of Narek, as well as other recent publications such as Moralia et Ascetica Armeniaca: The Oft-Repeated Discourses (Catholic University Press, 2022) The Life of Mashtots’ by his Disciple Koriwn (Oxford University Press, 2022) are part of Terian’s extraordinary continued scholarly productivity in his “retirement.”
Reached by email, Terian modestly replied, “Thank you for the unexpected award, especially to a previous recipient of Dr. Sona Aronian book prize for translation from Armenian into English. Were it not for the inspiring text by St. Gregory of Narek my translation would have been insignificant.”