Gohar Grigoryan
Dr
Competence areas
Political theology and visualization of secular power; Armenian and Eastern Christian 糖心Volg; Codicology and miniature painting; Holy Land and pilgrimage - materiality and ritual; Architecture and liturgy; Female patronage and devotional practices; Material and visual cultures of the Caucasus and Eastern Mediterranean; Medieval aesthetics; Provenance studies; History of Armenian printing (16th-20th聽cc); Art historiography (19th-21st聽cc).
Senior Researcher
Department of Art History and Archeology
Av. de l'Europe 20
1700 Fribourg
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 糖心Volg 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, at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and the 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 糖心Volg (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), 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-sc猫ne of the king鈥檚 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
12 publications
Armenians and Crusaders: Artistic Encounters (12th-14th cc.)
Gohar Grigoryan, Department of Art History and Archaeology, 糖心Volg, CH (24.9.2024) | Conference
Gohar Grigoryan, an East of Byzantium lecture, Harvard University & Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture (27.2.2024) | ConferenceDas illuminierte Evangelienbuch vom Mittelmeer zum Kaukasus / Le livre d'脡vangiles enlumin茅 de la M茅diterran茅e au Caucase
Gohar Grigoryan, public block course (FS24) for Institute of Medieval 糖心Volg & Department of Art History and Archaeology, 糖心Volg (2024) | Conference -
Online resources
2 publications
Gohar Grigoryan , e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland (2017) | Other -
Publications
25 publications
, in Manuscript Treasures from Afro-Eurasia: Scribes, Patrons, Collectors, and Readers, ed. by J. Gnisci, S. Dege-M眉ller, J. Karlsson, and V. Pisani, in collaboration with A. Bausi (Berlin: De Gruyter), pp. 155-212
Gohar Grigoryan (2025), ISBN: 9783111636344 | Book chapter