Dr. Khatchig Mouradian, the Nikit and Eleanora Ordjanian Visiting Professor at Columbia University, will examine the tumultuous journey of the revolutionary turned statesman Aram Manougian, whose struggle against the oppressors of his own people spanned two declining empires, and who is also remembered as the founder the First Republic of Armenia (1918-1920). Through a wealth of documents from the archives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Ottoman Empire and the First Armenian Republic, as well as published and unpublished memoirs and accounts, Dr. Mouradian traces the 40-year life and century-long legacy of Aram Manougian (born Sarkis Hovhannisian), who led the 1915 Defense of Van–becoming known as Aram of Van–and laid the foundations of an independent state for his people, who often remember him today as, simply, Aram.

In addition to his post at Columbia University, he is also the coordinator of the Place and Memory Project at the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University, and adjunct professor in the Philosophy Department at Worcester State University.