The Promise Armenian Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles announced the results of their 2021 to 2022 research funding competition. The PAI grants and fellowships are designed to support research across all academic fields, with an emphasis on or connection to Armenia or Armenians, per the award competition announced earlier in the year. Congratulations to all of the award recipients, whose proposals underwent a rigorous selection process involving multiple UCLA-based faculty reviewers.
PAI POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS:
Astghik Kuzanyan (Ph.D., Armenian Academy of Sciences, 2019)
“Nanometer Scale Single Photon Thermoelectric Detectors”
Under the supervision of Professor Artur Davoyan of the UCLA Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Dr. Kuzanyan’s research will involve experimental and numerical studies related to nanometer scale single photon thermoelectric detectors, nanophotonics, and thin film materials, and will lay a foundation for collaborations between UCLA and Armenia’s Institute for Physical Research of the National Academy of Sciences.
Alyssa Mathias (Ph.D., UCLA, expected August 2021)
“Songs for the Next Hundred Years: Music and Development in the Republic of Armenia”
Under the mentorship of Dr. Melissa Bilal and Professor Movses Pogossian of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Alyssa Mathias will develop a book manuscript positing that musicians occupy a unique vantage point from which to understand the complex web of transnational, diasporic, and regional initiatives that address pressing concerns in Armenia today.
Hrag Papazian (Ph.D., Oxford, 2020)
“Contesting Armenianness: Intra-Armenian Diversity and Multiple Regimes of Exclusion in Contemporary Turkey”
Under the supervision of Professor Salih Can Açiksoz of the UCLA Department of Anthropology, Dr. Papazian will work on a book manuscript based on his ethnographic research conducted during the past seven years among the Armenians of Turkey.
UCLA PAI FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS:
Movses Pogossian (Professor of Violin and Director of the Armenian Music Program, UCLA) and Melissa Bilal (Distinguished Research Fellow, UCLA CNES; Lecturer, Department of Ethnomusicology)
“Processing and Preserving the Bedros Alahaidoyan Music Collection: Proposal for an Inaugural Project for the Planned UCLA Armenian Sound Library”
The project will introduce Bedros Alahaydoyan and his body of work to the scholarly community of ethnomusicologists and make the Alahaidoyan archive widely available to scholars at large and the broader public.
Richard Hovannisian (Professor Emeritus, UCLA History)
“Armenian Communities of Iran: History, Trade, Culture”
This grant covers publication and graphics costs associated with the 14th volume of the UCLA series, “Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces.” The volume explores centuries-long Armenian Iranian connections, especially since the forced migration of countless thousands of Armenians to New Julfa, across the river from the Safavid capital of Isfahan.
UCLA PAI UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH GRANT:
Nathan Chu (UCLA, B.S., Pre-Human Biology and Society, Class of 2024)
“Beliefs Towards Lung Cancer Screening Among Male Smokers in Armenia”
Under the mentorship of Dr. Shant Shekherdimian of the David Geffen School of Medicine, and through a partnership with university students in Armenia, Nathan will administer a survey that will analyze the attitudes and beliefs of male tobacco users towards lung cancer screening.
