Nina Garsoïan


Nina G. Garsoïan is an American historian specializing in Armenian and Byzantine history. In 1969 she became the first female historian to get tenure at Columbia University and, subsequently, became the first holder of Gevork M. Avedissian Chair in Armenian History and Civilization at Columbia. In 1977–79 she served as dean of the Graduate School of Princeton University.

Biography

Garsoïan was born in Paris on April 11, 1923 to Armenian parents from Russia, originally from Nakhichevan-on-Don and Tbilisi. She moved to New York in 1933. She received a BA in Classical Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College in 1943 and both MA and PhD from Columbia University in Byzantine, Near Eastern and Armenian History. She received Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Mekhitarist monastery of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Venice.
Garsoïan began teaching at Smith College in 1956 and Columbia in 1962. In 1969 she became the female professor to receive tenure at Columbia's Department of History. Garsoïan became the first female dean of the Princeton University Graduate School when she was appointed to the position in 1977. She served in that position until 1979.
In 1979 she became the first holder of Gevork M. Avedissian Chair in Armenian History and Civilization at Columbia University. She retired in 1993 and is currently Professor Emerita of Armenian History and Civilization.
Garsoïan is the director of the Paris-based Revue des Études Arméniennes and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. She has participated in Byzantine Studies Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, twice serving as a co-director.

Publications

Garsoïan has published numerous books, journal and encyclopedia articles on Armenian, Byzantine and Sassanian history. In her publications she has emphasized the Iranian/Persian influence on Armenian history.
;Books
;Articles
;Translations