Gohar Grigoryan

photo

 gohar.grigoryan@unifr.ch
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4996-7314

Competence areas

Political theology and visualization of secular power; Armenian and Eastern Christian Studies; Codicology and miniature painting; Holy Land and pilgrimage - materiality and ritual; Architecture and liturgy; Female patronage and devotional practices; Material and visual cultures of medieval Caucasus, Eastern Mediterranean and Christian East; Medieval aesthetics; Provenance studies; History of Armenian printing (16th-20th cc); Art historiography (19th-21st cc).

Senior Researcher
Department of Art History and Archeology

MIS 02 bu. 2020A
Av. de l'Europe 20
1700 Fribourg
MIS 02, 2020A

Biography

Gohar Grigoryan is an art historian and codicologist, with strong interest in history, philology and theology. She received her PhD in 2017 from the University of Fribourg for her dissertation on royal images of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia (summa cum laude). She has held research and teaching positions at the Universities of Fribourg, Bern, and Florence, Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and Matenadaran Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan. Her work has been supported by Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship 2013-2016, Zeno Karl Schindler Foundation (Geneva), NAASR (Belmont), AGBU (New York), Getty Foundation (Los Angeles), SNSF, and Samuel H. Kress Foundation (New York). She is the recipient of the Best Conference Paper Award 2015, awarded by the Society for Armenian Studies (California State University, Fresno).

Grigoryan’s main research interests revolve around medieval Armenian art, architecture, and aesthetics within the large Eurasian area in general and in the South Caucasian and Eastern Mediterranean regions more particular. She is the editor of the first complete bibliography of publications printed by the Armenian Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin until the sovietisation of Armenia in 1920 (Etchmiadzin press 2021), as well as co-editor of two collective volumes (Brepols/Harvey Miller 2023; Viella 2023) and author of many peer-reviewed articles and essays. Her recent publications focus on Cilician Armenian political rituals, manuscript studies, and materiality of religious worship.

Research and publications

  • Conference papers
    21 publications

    An illustrated Armenian lawbook and the ceremonial mise-en-scène of the king’s body
    112th CAA Annual Conference, Chicago, 14-17 February 2024 / ICMA-sponsored session: Medieval Ritual Representations: Model of or Model for? (17.2.2024) | Conference

  • Lectures
    11 publications

    Armenians and Crusaders: Artistic Encounters (12th-14th cc.)
    Gohar Grigoryan, Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Fribourg, CH (24.9.2024) | Conference

    Political Rituals and Urban Communities in Cilician Armenia
    Gohar Grigoryan, an East of Byzantium lecture, Harvard University & Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture (27.2.2024) | Conference

  • Online resources
    2 publications

    Manuscript description (Cod. 1513, Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen, Switzerland)
    Gohar Grigoryan , e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland (2017) | Other

  • Publications
    24 publications

    Political Rituals and Consolidation of Power in Cilician Armenia: The Evidence of the Coronation Ordo and Its Eurasian Entanglements
    Gohar Grigoryan, Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies (forthcoming) (2024) | Journal article