Public lecture

From Apostolic Roots to Modern Realities: Women in the Armenian Church

Armenian Research Center of the University of Michigan-Dearborn

Registration

31 oct. 2025 7:00 PM

St. Vartan Room
St. John Armenian Apostolic Church
22001 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, MI 48075

Michigan - United States

What role have women played in the story of the Armenian Church? This talk takes us on a journey from the dramatic first accounts of Armenia's conversion to Christianity in the early 4th century--where women appear as powerful symbols of faith and sacrifice--to the ways their presence and voices have shifted over the centuries. Along the way, we'll see how history, tradition, and changing realities have shaped women's place in the church, and what this means for us today.

Dr. David Zakarian is the Haig and Isabel Berberian Endowed Chair of Armenian Studies at California State University, Fresno. He holds a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford, where he was also a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow between 2017 and 2019. He is the author of Women, Too, Were Blessed: The Portrayal of Women in Early Christian Armenian Texts (Brill, 2021) and co-editor of Armenia through the Lens of Time (Brill, 2022). He has published extensively on the representation of women in early Christian Armenian literature, as well as on medieval Armenian manuscripts.

Admission is free and open to all. Light refreshments will be provided. The University of Michigan-Dearborn does not necessarily endorse the speaker's views. For more information, contact Gerald Ottenbreit at 313-593-5181 or gottenbr@umich.edu

Registration