Armen Abkarian
Department of History PhD Student
abkarian@umich.edu
Interests: The Mongol Empire, Armenian Literature, Armenian Historiography
Education: MA in Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago
Ali Bolcakan
Comparative Literature PhD Student
bolcakan@umich.edu
Interests: Ottoman and Armenian Studies, Turkish-German minority literatures, literary theory and continental philosophy
Languages: Turkish, English, German, Ottoman, modern Greek, French
Education: MA in Comparative Languages & Literatures, Bilgi University, Istanbul Turkey
Tuğçe Kayaal
Middle East Studies PhD Student
tkayaal@umich.edu
Interests: History of childhood and youth in the Middle East; history of gender and sexuality in the late Ottoman Empire; Ottoman social and cultural history; cultural history of the body; social and cultural history of World War
Languages: Turkish (Native), English (Fluent), Armenian (Intermediate), French (Intermediate), Arabic (Elementary), German (Reading Proficiency)
Education: MA, Sabanci University, History
Sosi Lepejian
Department of Sociology PhD Student
lepejian@umich.edu
Interests: Ethnography, comparative-historical sociology, environmental sociology, colonialism, social movements, migration, race and ethnicity, Middle East Studies
Languages: English, Spanish, Western Armenian, Arabic
Education: BA in Human Rights, Bard College
Arakel Minassian
Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies MA Student
minassag@umich.edu
Interests: Contemporary Armenian literature in the Republic of Armenia and the diaspora; literary meeting spaces; translation studies
Languages: English (Fluent), Western Armenian (Fluent), Eastern Armenian (Intermediate), French (Intermediate), and Russian (Intermediate Low)
Education: BA with Honours, McMaster University
Mano Sakayan
Department of History PhD Student
msakayan@umich.edu
Interests: Intellectual history, cultural history, history of science and medicine, French colonial studies, Armenian history, late Ottoman history, the modern Arab world.
Languages: Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, French, Persian, and Turkish
Education: MA in Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University
