American Research Institute of the South Caucasus - ARISC

Congratulations to ARISC member Houri Berberian on receiving the distinction of Chancellor's Professor. She is one of only nine faculty members in the School of Humanities with such a distinction out of over 185 senate (ladder-rank) faculty. Chancellor’s Professors are faculty who have demonstrated unusual academic merit, achieved acclaim for their accomplishments, and are highly likely to continue producing notable achievements in scholarship. Read more at UC Irvine School of Humanities:

Chancellor’s Professors in the Humanities The Chancellor’s Professor title is designed for persons who have earned the title of Professor and who have demonstrated unusual academic merit and whose continued promise for scholarly achievement is unusually high. Thus, Chancellor’s Professors are faculty who have achieved acclaim for their ...

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A Grand Tour: Travels in the South Caucasus

Course Schedule: 8 weeks, Mondays, June 29th–August 17th, 2026, 4–6 pm CDT/5–7pm EDT. Classes meet online via Zoom with recordings available.

Experience traveling through the South Caucasus in the 19th and early 20th centuries through a joint course taught by experts from ARISC and the University of Chicago! With the advent of the railroad, the 19th century saw a revolution in travel with more people journeying further afield than ever before. At the time under the control of the Russian Empire, and subsequently the Soviet Union, the South Caucasus, now the independent countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, were an attractive location for the adventurous traveler. From the famous diarist Anne Lister who visited Georgia with her partner Ann Walker and died at Kutaisi in 1840, to Alexander Dumas père, author of The Three Musketeers who marveled at the fire temple of Baku in Azerbaijan in 1858, and Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's visit to Armenia in 1829, the region has fascinated travelers. This course explores the South Caucasus through photography, painting, music, and literature as viewed through the eyes of travelers.

Instructors: Brian Fairley (Univ. of Pittsburgh), Rebecca Ruth Gould (SOAS Univ. of London), Polina Kasian (Univ. of Chicago), Anna Oldfield (Coastal Carolina Univ.), Rebecca Ruth Gould (SOAS Univ. of London), Alyssa Mathias (Knox College), Arpi Movsesian (Univ. of Notre Dame), and Tasha Vorderstrasse (Univ. of Chicago).

This is a joint course, offered in partnership between ARISC and the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) at the University of Chicago.

For more information, and to register for the course, see link in first comment.

Since 2014, over 650 musicians, architects, researchers, filmmakers, civil society volunteers, and professionals from many other fields have taken their first steps to the neighboring country through the Türkiye-Armenia Travel Grant.

Applications for 2026-2027 are now open!
Those who wish to visit the neighboring country to develop dialogue and cooperation are welcome to apply: https://shorturl.at/4oZAk

ARISC Internship Opportunity

The American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) is looking to fill an internship position in Baku. Duties include creating social media content for ARISC's social media pages, and occasionally assisting US scholars with the logistics of their research, as needed. The internship is a volunteer one for 5 hours a week, for a negotiable length of time, and is compensated with an annual Student Membership to ARISC and a stipend of $100/month, up to 2 months. It's a great opportunity to make contacts with US scholars. Interested applicants should complete the application form at https://forms.gle/D7CGmS4ehgEWhphB7
and upload their CV into the application form. For more information, please visit www.arisc.org or email us at [email protected].

Applications will be accepted until Saturday, June 27, 2026, or until position is filled.

For more information on ARISC, visit our website, www.ARISC.org

The Achaemenid empire governed a vast region and this included the Armenian highlands in the South Caucasus. The Satrapy of Armenia was part f the northern boundary of the Achaemenid Empire and is known to have revolted against Achaemenid authority on a number of occasions. Here in the Persepolis reliefs, we can see the Armenians bringing a horse, as well as a large vessel, presumably made of metal demonstrating that in such depictions, the Armenians were seen as people who would bring valuable commodities such as horses and precious metals.

to the photographs of the Armenian-Iranian photographer Antonio Sevruguin. As we can se in his photographs of people, Sevruguin's pictures of landscapes and architecture are carefully staged. While the focus is on the palace that dominates the hillside overlooking the valley, one can just see in the foreground, very much in shadow, what seems to be two horses, one with a pack and another in front of a wheel, which may be a cart. In addition to the palace, the double line of trees in front of the road is emphasized to the viewer. The description with the photograph notes that the large building is a Qajar royal palace just outside of Tehran. The photograph further notes that the present royal family always liked to build palaces on elevated ground.

This week we're looking at different materials related to the South Caucasus at the ISAC! Winner of The 2025 Mediterranean Seminar Prize for the Best Source Edition and Translation and the 2025 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prize for Excellence in Armenian Studies, "An Armenian Futūh Narrative: Łewond’s Eighth-Century History of the Caliphate," was written by Sergio La Porta and Alison M. V***a and published by ISAC in 2024. The text is an important source for the history of early Islamic rule and the only contemporary chronicle of second/eighth-century caliphal rule in Armenia, describing the events that took place during the century and a half following the Prophet Muḥammad’s death in AH 11/632 CE. You can download the book for free here: https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/lamine/lamine4