ARS Norian Youth Connect Program to be held at NAASR on March 7

2026-02-13 - 20:36

WATERTOWN, Mass. — The Armenian Relief Society (ARS) of the Eastern United States is proud to announce that the Spring 2026 ARS Norian Youth Connect Program (YCP) will take place at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) headquarters in Belmont, Massachusetts, on Saturday, March 7, 2026. The program will feature talks and discussions with Maral Kibarian Skelsey, Peter Balakian, Marc A. Mamigonian and Julia Hintlian. Khatchig Mouradian will serve as the program director. This year’s program will include sessions on roots and ancestral connections to historic Armenia, Armenian American history, literature and memory, and an introduction to the world of Classical Armenian (krapar). The event will also feature a special exhibit on 250 years of Armenian American history prepared for YCP participants, as well as a book signing. To secure a spot, students can register at: www.arseastusa.org/ycp2026. The application fee is $50 and covers the program plus breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Overnight accommodations will be provided exclusively to out-of-town students. The registration deadline is February 27. Below are the bios of the speakers and titles of their presentations: Maral Kibarian Skelsey Maral Kibarian Skelsey Title of discussion: Roots, Ancestral Home and Family Connections in Historic Armenia Maral Kibarian Skelsey was born in Boston, Mass. and is a descendant of grandparents who emigrated to the U.S. from Kharpert and Sepastia in the early 20th century. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Chinese history and language and received her M.D. with honors from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She is a double board-certified Mohs Dermatologic Surgeon and Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Peter Balakian Peter Balakian Title of talk: Democracy and Memory from Manhattan to Der Zor: The Poetics of New York Trilogy Peter Balakian is the author of nine books of poems, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Ozone Journal and, most recently, New York Trilogy. His memoir Black Dog of Fate won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award and The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response was a New York Times bestseller. Balakian is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities in the department of English at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. Marc A. Mamigonian Marc A. Mamigonian (Photo: Louise and Bert Halstead) Title of talk: “The Yankees of the Near East” in the New World: Armenians Establishing a Community and Building Institutions in America, 1830–1930 Marc A. Mamigonian is the Director of Academic Affairs of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), where he has worked since 1998. He is the co-author of the volume Annotations to James Joyce’s Ulysses (Oxford University Press, 2022; with John N. Turner and Sam Slote) and is the co-author of annotated editions of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Alma Classics, 2014; with John N. Turner) and Ulysses (Alma Classics, 2015, with John N. Turner and Sam Slote). He has served as the editor of the Journal of Armenian Studies and the volume The Armenians of New England (Armenian Heritage Press, 2004), and as co-editor with Thomas Kühne and Mary Jane Rein of Documenting the Armenian Genocide: Essays in Honor of Taner Akçam (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024) and has published articles in Genocide Studies International, James Joyce Quarterly, Armenian Review, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies and elsewhere. Julia Hintlian Julia Hintlian Title of talk: Introduction to the World of Classical Armenian (krapar) Julia Hintlian defended her Ph.D. in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University in 2025, where her dissertation focused on Greek, Syriac, Arabic and Armenian approaches to theological anthropology in Late Antiquity. Her articles are published or forthcoming in Vigiliae Christianae, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Studies in Late Antiquity, the Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, the Saint Nersess Theological Review and elsewhere. She is currently preparing two volumes for publication, one on Armenian patristics, which will appear with Catholic University of America Press’s Studies in Eastern Christianity series, and the other on ninth-century Arabic esoterica, which will appear in the Texts for Transcendence and Transformation series distributed by Harvard University Press. Hintlian learned Classical Armenian at the Saint Nersess Armenian Seminary in Armonk, New York.