Introduction

My name is Nora Bairamian and I am a PhD student at UCLA in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures in the Fall of 2020. I have received Master’s degrees from Columbia University and UCI from Middle Eastern Studies and history, respectfully.

My first foray into blogging covered some of my experiences after moving to Armenia in 2014. The reason I’ve started this blog is because I love Armenian history and literature and believe that there is a wealth of unexplored information that should be know, understood and discussed. Outside of Armenian history and literature, my interests are film, fashion, print culture, and American and art history. 

What is the Eaglet?

The name of this blog is an homage inspired by the periodicals published by Mkrtich Khrimian Hayrik. The first periodical, “The Eagle of Vaspurakan,” was published primarily in Van in the 19th century. It was dedicated to both educating the rural population of the eastern borderlands of the Ottoman Empire and to enlightening urban Armenian elites about what was happening in these same regions. An offshoot of this publication is the “Eaglet of Taron,” which was published in Mush, again by Khrimian. The periodical included educational articles ranging from reprinting a piece by French author Alphonse de LaMartine to discussing the Armenian National Constitution.

Posts on The Eaglet of UCLA will mostly fit within the following two categories:

1) Reviews, summaries and short lessons.

Many people are interested in learning about Armenian history, culture and literature but either do not have the time to read all of the available material or don’t know where to start. I hope to help anyone who is interested in exploring these themes by giving them that starting point.

2) General thoughts on topics history or current affairs which I find relevant to this blog.