We would like to invite you to the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Armenian Studies Department. Please see the detailed programme of the conference below.
“Armenian Christianity Across the Centuries: Continuity and Diversity”
Friday, November 6th 2026
Location: Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Sophianum
Budapest, Mikszáth Kálmán tér 1
8:30-9:00 Registration, Coffee, and Refreshments
9:00-9:15 Welcome Remarks
Kovács Bálint, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary)
Anatolii Tokmantcev, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary)
9:15-10:00 Keynote Address
Peter Cowe, Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies, UCLA, Los Angeles (USA)
“Medieval Latin Missions to the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia and Greater Armenia”
10:00-11:20 Armenian Christianity before Modernity
Chair: Konrad Siekierski, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Lodz, Lodz (Poland)
Emilio Bonfiglio, University of Hamburg, Hamburg (Germany): “Translating the Church Fathers into Armenian in the First Millennium: A Case Study of Manuscript Evidence”
Vahe Torosyan, Matenadaran. Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts. National Academy of Sciences Institute of History, Yerevan (Armenia): “The Political Underpinnings of Armenian-Latin Ecclesiastical Relations (12th–14th Centuries)”
Marco Bais, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome (Italy) : “When Conciliation Is Mistaken for Capitulation: The Armenian-Byzantine Dialogue as a Theological Rashomon”
11:20-11:40 Coffee Break
11:40-12:40 Empires and Armenians
Chair: Karen Jallatyan, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary)
Elke Hartmann, Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Berlin (Germany): “The Armenian Catholic community and its significance in the Ottoman Empire”
Vicken Cheterian, University of Geneva, Geneva (Switzerland): “The Armenian Apostolic Church and Secular Reforms as Seen by H.J. Siruni”
12:40-14:00 Lunch (on site)
14:00-15:00 Official Commemorative Session: The 10th Anniversary of the Department of Armenian Studies
Location: Pázmány Péter Catholic University, St. John Paul II Auditorium
Budapest, Szentkirályi str. 28
November 6th, Afternoon Program
Location: Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Sophianum
Budapest, Mikszáth Kálmán tér 1
15:30-16:50 Armenian Christianity in the Middle East and Eastern Europe
Chair: Peter Cowe, UCLA, Los Angeles (USA)
Karen Jallatyan, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary): “Christianity and Photographic Afterlives of Displacements of Middle East Armenians”
Máté Tamáska, Apor Vilmos Catholic College, Vác (Hungary): “Lost Places: Armenian Church Architecture in Central Europe”
Edgar Hovhannisyan, Yerevan State Pedagogical University, Yerevan (Armenia): “Diasporization of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia: Exile, Restoration, and Centralization”
17:00-18:20 Protestant Armenian Experience
Chair: Razmik Panossian, Armenian Communities Department, Galoust Gulbenkian Foundation, Lissbon (Portugal)
Dominika Macios, Polish Institute of World Art Studies, Warsaw (Poland): “Faith, the Armenian Church, and Identity: Armenian Religiosity through the Eyes of Karen Jeppe and Her Co-workers”
Hayk Martirosyan, Lepsiushaus Potsdam, Potsdam (Germany): “The Educational Activities and Evangelization Efforts of German Missions among Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (1896–1914)”
Anatolii Tokmantcev, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary): “Can Protestantism Make You More Armenian? The Armenian Church of the Nazarene and Armenian Jehovah’s Witnesses in Los Angeles”
Saturday, November 7th 2026
9:00-10:20 Catholic Armenians in the 20th century
Chair: Balint Kovacs, Pázmány Péter Catholic University
Felix Corley, Independent Researcher, Bromley (The United Kingdom): “The Armenian Catholic Church in the post-Second World War Soviet Union”
Krisztián Szabó, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, (Hungary): “The Venetian Connection - New Evidence about the role of Hungarian State Security Service in the Attempt to Replace Dániel Kádár”
András Szabolcs, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania): “The 1927 Romanian Concordat and the Armenian Question”
10:20-10:40 Coffee Break
10:40-12:00 Contemporary Armenian Catholicism
Chair: Hakob Matevosyan, Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS Berlin), Berlin (Germany)
Konrad Siekierski, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Lodz, Lodz (Poland): “The Boundaries of Belonging: The Armenian Catholic Church in Post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia”
Gayane Shagoyan, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Yerevan (Armenia):
“When a Church Becomes a Home: Armenian Catholic Heritage and Vernacular Christianity in Gyumri”
Yulia Antonyan, Yerevan State University, Yerevan (Armenia): “Living Armenian Catholicism across the Post-Soviet transformations”
12:00-13:10 Lunch Break
13:10-14:30 Armenian Catholics in Diaspora – I
Chair: Elke Hartmann, Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Berlin (Germany)
Kornél Nagy, HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities (HUN-REN BTK), Budapest (Hungary): “The Appointment of Micháł Minas Theodorowicz as the Armenian Catholic Bishop of Transylvania and Its Circumstances”
Bálint Kovács, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary): “Confessional Affiliation and Eligibility for Social Support: The Cameller Foundation’s Aid System in Elisabethopolis during the Dualist Era”
Hakob Matevosyan, Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS Berlin), Berlin (Germany): “From Parish to Battleground: The Armenian Church and the Struggle for Authority among Armenians in Hungary”
14:30-15:25 Armenian Catholics in Diaspora – II
Chair: Edgar Hovhannisyan, Yerevan State Pedagogical University, Yerevan (Armenia)
Khachatur Stepanyan, Yerevan State Pedagogical University, Yerevan (Armenia): “The Armenian Catholic Community of Javakhk: Historical-Demographic, Confessional, and Identity Issues in the 19th–21st centuries”
Tigran Zargaryan, Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Science of the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan (Armenia): “The Mekhitarist Monastery of Vienna Digital Library: From Resource Discovery to Digital Humanities”
15:25-15:40 Coffee Break
15:40-17:00 Religion and Politics in the Armenian Context
Chair: Anatolii Tokmantcev, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest (Hungary)
Harutyun Marutyan, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography; Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Yerevan (Armenia):
“A Tenth-Century Conversion, a Twentieth-Century Consequence”
Arpine Maniero, Collegium Carolinum e.V., Munich (Germany): “Armenian theological students at German universities and their connections to German Protestantism”
Dániel Gazdik, Armenian State Pedagogical University, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Yerevan (Armenia): “Guarding the Flock: Armenian Religious Communities of Erzurum through Russian Consular Reports (1878–1914)”
17:00-17:15 Closing Remarks
