Seta Dadoyan

Seta B. Dadoyan (née Barsoumian) is a prominent Armenian scholar. A philosopher, historian also a painter, she specializes in medieval and modern Armenian political and intellectual cultures in their interactive aspects in the Near Eastern world. The author of over a dozen books, hundred and fifty scholarly, reference and literary articles, and the recipient of several top awards in Armenian Studies, she taught cultural Studies, philosophy, history of art and technology at the American University of Beirut, and Armenian Studies at Columbia, Chicago, Yerevan State Universities and St. Nersess Seminary. WikipediaEarly life and education

Seta (baptismal name Satenik) Dadoyan ‒ in Armenian Սեդա Պ. Տատոոյեան ‒ was born in the old part of the ancient city of Aleppo in a historic building. Her father, Grigor Barsoumian a Genocide survivor, born in Ayntab of Cilicia, the descendant of an originally Persian-Armenian family, was a famous metal engraver. Her mother Nazeli Yaylayan, an orphan born in Ayntab in a merchant family from Caesarea, a first graduate of the Melkonian Institution in Cyprus, was an educator and musician. After Karen Yeppē Jemaran (college) and before graduating, she moved to Beirut, a more westernized and liberal place. In 1965 she had her Bachelor of Arts degree (with Distinction) in Philosophy and Fine Arts, from BCW (Beirut College for Women, presently Lebanese American University). After a year of studio studies in figure drawing at the City and Guilds School of Art in London, back in Beirut in 1969 she got her Master of Arts degree in philosophy from AUB (American University of Beirut). While living in war-stricken Beirut (from 1975 to 1991), raising two children and teaching at Haigazian College/University, and AUB, she worked for, and was granted the highly exclusive degree of Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy in 1991 (awarded by the V.A.G. Moscow, via Yerevan State University). Her dissertation, published as a book, on the Islamic sources of 13th century theologian Yovhannēs Erznkats‘i (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, or Rasā’il Ikhwān al-Ṣafa’) was a discovery and marked the beginning of a journey into the unchartered territory of Islamic-Armenian interactions from the 7th century. In 1997, a volume on the Fāṭimid Armenians (Leiden, 1997) was a total novelty for Armenian and Near Eastern Studies. “In the work of Dr. Dadoyan, the otherwise baffling phenomenon of the Fāṭimid Armenians is demystified”, said Prof. Kamal Salibi (d. 2011), a very prominent historian of the Arab world and Lebanon. Over the next decades she wrote five volumes and dozens of studies, thus creating a new discipline in Islamic-Armenian Studies. “The field of Armenian-Islamic interactions is one she created or ‘resurrected’ from the primary sources herself… she is a trailblazer”, wrote Dr. Robert Bedrosian. Her work puts “Armenia’s history in local context and makes the Armenian case essential to any serious student of the Islamic medieval period”, wrote Prof. James Russell.

Academic careerItalic text

Dadoyan’s teaching career started early, as a graduate student. From 1981 to 1987 she taught courses in philosophy and Armenian Studies at Haigazian. Her two-decade long teaching at AUB started in 1986 and ended in 2005 when she moved to New York. At AUB she taught cultural courses at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Civilization Sequence Program and the Department of philosophy. In 1996 she was invited to teach at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture associated courses in professional ethics, history of art and music, and history of science and technology. In the US, she was twice appointed Ordjanian Visiting Professor at Columbia University in 2002 and 2006, to teach courses in Islamic-Armenian interactive history at [then] the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages Cultures (MEALAC). From 2007 to 2011 she was adjunct professor of Armenian language and culture at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in New Rochelle, NY (where she also lived from 2007 to 2023, she now resides in Pelham, NY). In 2010 she was Ara and Edma Dumanian visiting professor at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Chicago University, and in the Fall Semester of 2011, she was invited to teach at three departments of Yerevan State University, focusing on Islamic-Armenian interactive history.

Awards Italic text

-SAS (Society for Armenian Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award “in recognition and appreciation for outstanding service and contribution to the field of Armenian Studies.” Nov. 6, 2021.

-Mesrob Mashtots‘ Medal and Pontifical Encyclical” for “exceptional scholarly contributions to Armenian history and intellectual culture”, Antelias, November 8, 2015.

-The Medal and Certificate of David Anhaght-Invictus – “The Highest Award of the Armenian Philosophical Academy – Armenian Academy of Sciences in Yerevan.” January 8, 1999.

- Fellow of the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies in Jordan, elected “for the excellence of The Fāṭimid Armenians (Leiden: Brill, 1997) and distinguished contributions to the Academic Program of RIIFS (Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies.” August,1997.

-Haygazun Uzunian Prize for “Best Armenian Book of 1987” for her Pages of West Armenian Thought (in Armenian), September,1987.

BibliographyItalic text

Books (13/4)Italic text

-In Press: Counterpoints. Philosophy, Historiography, Art ‒ A Dialectical-Hermeneutical -Discursive Triangle [From a lecture series at the Atamian-Hovsepian Curatorial Practice, March-May 2024, New York].

-Encounters and Convergences. A Book of Ideas and Art. USA: 2023. ISBN 979-889121965-6

-Islam in Armenian Literary Culture: Texts, Contexts, Dynamics. Leuven: Peeters, 2021. ISBN 978-90-429-4503-6

-2015 - The Armenian Condition in Hindsight and Foresight- A Discourse / 2015 – Հայ Վիճակը Յետահայեցութեամբ և Նախահայեցութեամբ – Վերլուծում մը. Ottawa, Canada: 2015. ISBN 978-1-4951-7994-5

-The Catholicosate of Cilicia - History, Mission, Treasures. Editor, Co-Author. Antelias, Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications, 2015. ISBN 978-9953-0-3164-4

-The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World – Paradigms of Interaction Seventh to Fourteenth Centuries. Transaction Publishers. New Brunswick, U.S.A. & London, UK: 2011, 2012, 2013.

-Vol.Three: Medieval Cosmopolitanism and Images of Islam ‒Thirteenth to Fourteenth Centuries. (2013)

ISBN 978-1-4128-4577-9

- Vol. Two: Armenian Realpolitik in the Islamic World and Diverging Paradigms ‒ The Case of Cilicia. (2012) ISBN 978-1-4128-4782-7

- Vol. One: The Arab Period in Armīnyah. (2011) ISBN 978-1-4128-5189-3

-The Armenian Catholicosate from Cilicia to Antelias − An Introduction. Antelias, Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications, 2003.

-The Contribution of the Armenian Church to the Christian Witness in the Middle East. Editor, Co-Author. Antelias, Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications, 2001.

-The Fāṭimid Armenians ‒ Cultural and Political Interaction in the Near East. Islamic History and Civilization Series. E.J. Brill. Leiden: 1997. ISBN 90-04-10816-5

- Յովհաննէս Երզնակացիի 'Ի Տաճկաց Իմաստասիրաց'ը և Իմաստասիրական Արձակը Իսլամական Աղբիւրներուն Լոյսին Տակ [John of Erznka: 'Views from the Writings of Islamic Philosophers' and Philosophical Treatises in the Light of their Islamic Sources – Ikhwān al Ṣafā’]. Beirut: 1991.

- Էջեր Արևմտահայ Մտածումէն – Ե. Տէմիրճիպաշեան, Տ. Չրաքեան-Ինտրա, Շ. Պէրպէրեան, Գ. Գավաֆեան, Դանիէլ Վարուժան [Pages of West Armenian Philosophical Thought – E. Demirjibashian, T. Chrakian-Indra, Sh. Berberian, G. Kavafian, Taniel Varujan]. A.G.B.U. Beirut: 1987. (Winner of H. Uzunian Award for Best Armenian Book of 1987).

- Լիբանանահայ Նկարչութիւնը Ինքնութեան Տագնապին Լոյսին Տակ [Armenian Painting in Lebanon in the Light of the Crisis of Identity]. Antelias, Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications, 1984.

Scholarly Articles (35)Italic text

- “Nersēs IV Shnorhali: The Legacy in Political Perspective” - On the 850th anniversary of his death, Le Muséon. 1-2, 137 (2024), pp. 171-206.

- “St. Nersēs IV Shnorhali the Diplomat” [Surb Nerses IV Shnorhali Diwanagētĕ], Hask Armenological Review, XIII(2024), pp. 169-203.

- “Mik‘ayēl Ch‘amch‘eants‘”, in Christian-Muslim Relations ‒ A Bibliographical History, Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus (1800-1914), vol. 20, (eds) D. Thomas and J. Chesworth (eds). Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp. 371- 393.

- "The Armenian Ghurans 1680-2014", Le Muséon, 1-2, 133(2020), pp. 166-205.

- “Samuēl Anets‘i and his Continuators”, in Christian-Muslim Relations – A Bibliographical History –The Ottoman and Persian Empires, vol. 12, (eds) D. Thomas and J. Chesworth. Leiden: Brill, 2018, pp. 319-339.

- “Step‘anos Lehats‘i”, in Christian-Muslim Relations – A Bibliographical History – The Ottoman and Safavid Empires, vol. 10, (eds) D. Thomas and J. Chesworth. Leiden: Brill, 2017, pp. 566-581.

- “Cilicia”, in Diaspora and Identity [Spiwṛk‘ ew Ink‘nut‘iwn]. Antelias Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications, Antelias, Lebanon, 2018, pp. 63-98.

- “The Move of the Armenian Catholicosate from Armenia to Antelias”, in The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia: History, Treasures, Mission. Editor-Co-Author. Antelias, Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications, 2015, pp. 22-67.

- “Matt‘ēos Jughayets‘i”, Christian-Muslim Relations ‒ A Bibliographical History (1350-1500), vol. 5, (eds) D. Thomas and A. Mallet. Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp. 309-313.

- “Cilicia: The Philosophical Legacy between East and West”, Hask Armenological Yearbook, vol. XI(2009), pp. 349-384.

- “A Phenomenology of Armenian Studies: The Discipline and the ‘National’ Meta-Polis”, Le Muséon, 1-2, 121(2008), pp. 213-229. - “The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian and the Armenian Version of 1248: A Textual Comparison”, Hask Armenological Yearbook, X(2003-2006), pp. 257-275.

- “The Nāṣirī Futuwwa Literature and the Brotherhood Poetry of Yohannēs and Konstandin Erzenkats‘i – Texts and Contexts”, in Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam.(eds.) J. J.Van Ginkel, H. L.Murre - Van Den Berg, T. M. Van Lint. Louvain: Brill, 2005, pp. 237-264.

- “The Constitution of the Brotherhood of Erzinjān (1280): An Armenization of the Futuwwa Reform Project and Literature of ‘Abbāsid Caliph al-Nāṣir lī-dīn Allāh”, Revue des Études Arméniennes, NS. 29(2003-2004), pp. 117-165.

- “Armenian Persistence: National Identity between Myth and Reality”, Journal of Armenian Studies, VII (Fall- Winter 2002-2003), pp. 77-98.

- “The Armenian Catholicosate from Cilicia to Antelias”, in The Contribution of the Armenian Church to the Christian Witness in the Middle East. Editor, Co-Author. Antelias, Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications. 2001, pp. 21-80.

- “The Spirituality of the Armenian Church in Armenian Miniatures: Unity of Spirit and Vision”, in The Contribution of the Armenian Church to the Christian Witness in the Middle East. Editor Co-author. Antelias, Lebanon: Catholicosate Publications, 2001. pp. 147-155.

- “Islam and Armenian Polemical Strategies at the End of an Era: Matt‘ēos Jughayets'i and Grigor Tat‘evats‘i”, Le Muséon, 3-4, 114(2001), pp. 305-326.

- “Feminism in Armenian History: Origins in Medieval Heresies”, Armenian Mind Journal of the Philosophical Academy - National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, 1-2 V(2001), pp. 18-31.

- “The Problematic of Dissidence and Heresy in the Making of the National: The Armenian Case in the Medieval Middle East”, Hask Armenological Yearbook of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, IX(1997- 2000), pp. 101-113.

- “The Armenian Intermezzo in Bilād al-Shām ‒ 10th to 12th Centuries”, in Syrian Christians under Islam: The First Thousand Years. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2001, pp.159-183.

- “Armenians in Contact with Islam - Seventh to Fourteenth Centuries”, In Het Christelijk Oosten (The Christian East), Periodical of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at Nijmegen, the Netherlands, Special Issue on Armenia, December 52(2000), pp. 175-199.

- “Grigor of Tat‘ew: Treatise against the Tajiks”, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, vol. 7, 2(1996).

- “The Phenomenon of the Fāṭimid Armenians”, Medieval Encounters, 2.3(1996). Leiden: E.J. Brill, pp. 193-213.

- “Data for the History of Medieval Arab-Armenian Relations”, Haigazian Armenological Review, XII(1992), pp. 339-355.

- “A Thirteenth Century Armenian summary of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity (Rasā’il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’)”, Al-Abḥāth Journal of the American University of Beirut, XXXX(1992), pp. 3-18.

- “Footnotes to an Unwritten History of Arab-Armenian Relations”, in Studies in History and Literature. Festschrift in honor of N. A. Ziadeh, London: 1992, pp. 108-119.

- “The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity as the Sources of John of Erzenka’s ‘Views’”. Journal of Yerevan State University, I(1991), pp. 63-78.

- “The Problem of the Sources of John of Erzenka’s Views”, Journal of the Department of Humanities of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, II(1991), pp. 22- 43.

- “Indra - Diran Ch‘rakian ‒ The ‘Pallid Atlas’ of West Armenian thought”, Hask Armenological Yearbook of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, IV-V(1983-1984), pp. 179-218.

- “Shahan Berberian ‒ Philosophy of art”, Hask Armenological Yearbook of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, II-III (1982), pp. 85-110.

- “David Invictus: Refutation of Pyrrhonian Skepticism”, Hask Armenological Yearbook of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, I(1980), pp. 73-90.

- “T‘oros Ṛoslin and Sargis Picak”, Haigazian Armenological Review, VIII(1981), pp. 235-252.

- “A Survey of the History of Armenian Painting in Lebanon”, Haigazian Armenological Review, VII(1981), pp. 315-352.

- “Rasā’il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’: The Source of John of Erznka’s 'Views from the Writings of Islamic Philosophers’”, Haigazian Armenological Review, VI(1977-78), pp. 51-70.

Reference articles (6)Italic text

- “Yovhannēs Erznkats‘i-Bluz”, Christian-Muslim Relations - A Bibliographical History (1200-1350), vol. 4 (eds) D. Thomas and A. Mallet. Leiden: Brill, 2012, pp. 572-578.

- “The Fatimid Armenians”, Christian-Muslim Relations - A Bibliographical History (900-1050), vol. 2. (eds) D. Thomas and A. Malle. Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 25-27.

- “Bahrām al-Armani”, Encyclopedia of Islam, III(2011). Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 63-64.

- “Badr al-Jamālī”, Encyclopedia of Islam, III(2010). Leiden: Brill, pp. 133-134.

- “Yānis”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, XI(2007). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 281–282.

- “A Concise philosophical Glossary in the West Armenian Dialect”, Hask Armenological Yearbook of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, IV-V(1983-1984), pp. 219-234.

Conference Papers (34) Italic text

- “In Quest of Historical Geoglyphs: Islam in Armenian Literary Culture. Texts, Contexts, Dynamics (Louvain: Peeters, 2021), 15th General Conference of the Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes Martin Luther University, 2-4 September 2021, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.

- “Cilicia – A Historical Overview with Respect to National Identity Formation there” – International Conference on ‘The Disapora facing new horizons and the self-consciousness of the Armenians there’, organized by the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, July 11-14, 2017, Bikfaya, Lebanon.

- “The Cycle of Mahmet Legends: The Armenian Muḥammad”, Workshop on Armenian Folklore and Mythology - AIEA, SAS and Harvard Program in Armenian Studies, August 31 - September 1, 2013, Boston, MA.

- “Philosophy in the Process of Modernizing of Armenian Studies”- Round Table on ‘Philosophy in the 21st Century’- On the Occasion of UNESCO World Philosophy Day in Armenia- Khach‘atur Abovyan Teachers’ State University of Yerevan, Nov. 18, 2011, Yerevan, Armenia.

- “The Message of the UNESCO World Philosophy Day and its Armenization” – UNESCO World Philosophy Day in Armenia- Khach‘atur Abovyan Teachers’ State University of Yerevan (Petakan Mankavarjakan Hamalsaran), November, 17, 2011, Yerevan.

- “Rethinking Armenian History through Paradigms of Interaction: The Armenian Experience with Islam as Case Study”, AIEA 35th Anniversary -12th General Conference, Center for East Mediterranean Studies - Central European University, October 6-8, 2011, Budapest, Hungary.

- “The Condition Western of Armenian: Problematic Dimensions and Solutions”- International Conference on the Condition of Western Armenian: Challenges and Proposals, Seminary of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, August 18-20, 2011, Bikfaya, Lebanon.

- “Conceptualizing the Armenian Experience in the Late Medieval Islamic World: The Armenians of Bilād al-Shām 10th – 15th Centuries as a Major Case Study”, Les Arméniens dans le Bilād al-Shām entre Integration et Marginalization, Xème siècle – Xvème siècle, Conference organized by L’Institut Oriental Francais at Damascus, October 7-8, 2009, Holy Cross Center, Aleppo, Syria.

- “From the ‘Medīnan Oaths’ to the Shāh’s ‘Compact’ for New Julfa-Isfahan, and the Ottoman Rescripts: The Record of Islamic-Armenian Protocols”, International Conference on Armenia and Armenians in International Treatises, Armenian Studies Program, University of Michigan, March 19-21, 2009, Ann Arbor, MI.

- “Cilicia ‒The Philosophical Legacy between East and West”, The Culture of Armenian Cilicia- Conference organized by the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia and Mashtots’ National Matenadaran of Yerevan, January 16-21, 2008, Antelias, Lebanon.

- “Amoralizing the Phenomenon of Muslim Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World: Conversion as Alternative Politics and Culture”, The Seventh Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, Panel on Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Conversion in Caucasia and Central Eurasia, University of Washington, October 18-21 2007, Seattle, WA.

- “Towards a Philosophy of Armenian Education", Teachers’ Conference, The Eastern Diocese, July 17, 2006, New York.

- “Teaching Armenian Culture through the Arts”, Teachers’ Conference, The Eastern Diocese, July 21, 2006, New York.

- “The Impact of Armenian Women on the Armenian Church”, Yearly Conference of Hye Geen- AGBU – LA Chapter, February 12, 2005, Los Angeles, CA.

- “The Transformation of Cultural Paradigms”, AIWA 4th International Conference-on Armenian Women Today, October 24-27, 2004, Geneva, Switzerland.

- “State of the Art: Armenian-Islamic Studies or the Record of Armenian Cultural Political Experience in the Islamic World”, paper at the AIEA (Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes) – Armenian Studies 2004” Workshop ‒ The Condition and Prospects of Armenian Studies and New Prospects “Society, Religion, Thought and Science in Armenia in an Intercultural Perspective”, October 20-22, 2003, Venice, Italy.

- “Conceptualizing and De-conceptualizing Armenology: Theses for a Critique of Armenian Studies”, First International Conference on Armenology: Armenology Today and Prospects for its Development, September 15-20, 2003, Yerevan, Armenia.

- “Technology and Women in the ESCWA Region: Strategies between Local Actuality and Global Virtuality”, Proceedings of the ESCWA Expert Group Meeting of the Technology Section of the United Nations- November 1-3, 2000, Beirut.

- “The spirituality of the Armenian Church in the Armenian Miniatures: Unity of Spirit and Vision"- International Conference on Armenian Spirituality: A Contextual Study for our Times, Bossey Ecumenical Institute, June 25-July 1, 2001, Geneva, Switzerland.

- “The Armenian Meta-System and the Near Eastern Diaspora”, Workshop on Cultural Resistance and Globalization), in Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte, 2(2001) of Orientwissenschaftliches Zentrum.

- “Armenian Spirituality: The Philosophical Dimension”, International Conference on Armenian Spirituality: A Contextual Study for our Times - Bossey Ecumenical Institute, June-July, 2001, Geneva, Switzerland.

- “Medieval Armenian Art ‒ The role of the Armenian Church in the Promotion of Culture” – International Conference on the 1700th Anniversary of Armenian Christianity ‒ The Contribution of the Armenian Church to the Christian Witness in the Middle East, May 25-26, 2001, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “The Problematic of Dissidence and Heresy in the Making of the National: The Armenian Case in the Medieval Middle East”- ASN (Association for the Study of Nationalities) Sixth Annual World Convention on ‘Nation Making, Past and Present Community, Economy, Security’, sponsored by the Harriman Institute, Columbia University, 5-7 April 2001, New York.

- “Technology and Women in the ESCWA Region: Strategies between Local Actuality and Global Virtuality”, Expert Group Meeting of the Technology Section of the United Nations-ESCWA, November 1-3, 2000, Beirut, Lebanon. - “Feminism in Armenian History: Origins in Medieval Heresies” – AIWA Third International Conference, October 8-11, 2000, Yerevan, Armenia.

- “Islamic Forms in Bagratid Armenia; Armenian Forms in Fatimid Egypt”, 20th Congress of the UEAI- Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, September 10-17, 2000, Budapest, Hungary.

- “The Armenian Meta-System and the Near Eastern Diaspora” – Workshop on Minorities in the Middle East: Cultural Persistence and Globalization, The Oriental Institute, Martin Luther University, September 6, 2000, Halle/Wittenberg, Germany.

- “The Philosophical Legacy of Medieval Armenian Sects - 4th to 14th Centuries: A Critique”, International Conference on Armenia 2000, Martin Luther University, September 1-10, 2000, Halle/Wittenberg, Germany.

- “The Armenian Version of the Chronicle of Michael the Syrian”, International Symposium on the Occasion of the 800th Anniversary of the Death of Michael the Syrian, Patriarch of Antioch, October 1-8, 1999, Ma‘arrat Saydnaya, Damascus, Syria.

- “Islam and Armenian Polemical Strategies at the End of an Era” – Eighth AIEA (Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes) General Conference, September 29 – October 1, 1999, Vienna, Austria.

- “The Nāṣirī Futuwwa Literature and the Brotherhood Poetry of Yovhannēs and Kostandin Erznkats‘i: Texts and Contexts”, Symposium organized by the Universities of Groningen and Leiden on Redefining Christian Identity - Christian Cultural Strategies since the Rise of Islam , April 7-10, 1999, Groningen, The Netherlands.

- “The Armenian Intermezzo in Bilād al-Shām: 10th to 12th centuries”, Third Woodbrooke Mingana Symposium – Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak Colleges, September 7 –11, 1998, Birmingham, England. - “Islam and the Armenian Universe: Historicity and Historic Models”, Paper at the 19th Congress of the UEAI (Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, Martin Luther University, August 30 - September 4, 1998, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany.

- “The Armenian Brotherhoods and the Futuwwa and Akhī Organizations in the Medieval Islamic World – Studies in Near Eastern Urbanism” – Conference on Muslim Arab Civilization: The Non-Muslim Dimension, Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, August 16-21, 1997, Amman, Jordan.

- “Grigor Tat‘ewats‘i: Treatise against the Tajiks” – Workshop on Muslim Perceptions of Christian Perceptions of Islam, The Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, August, 1995, Amman, Jordan.

- “The Phenomenon of Fāṭimid Armenians”, Second Woodbrooke-Mingana Symposium on Arab Christianity and Islam- Coptic Arabic Christianity before the Ottomans: Text and Context- Centre for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, September 1994, Birmingham, England.

Articles in Literary Journals and Papers (11)

- “Banyan trees and an ancient people in perpetual self-creation”, Armenian Weekly, March 6, 2024.

- “An ‘alternative view’ on things Armenian”, Armenian Weekly, February 13, 2024.

- “Making Art in Wartime Lebanon”, Armenian Weekly, January 30, 2024.

- “Encounters and Convergences. A Book of Ideas and Art”, Part I, Armenian Weekly, January 16, 2024.

- “Armenian Studies as Near/Middle Eastern Studies” - Islam in Armenian Literary Culture. Texts, Contexts, Dynamics (Louvain: Peeters, 2021), Armenian Weekly, Sep. 13, 2021.

- “Armenian Studies as Near/Middle Eastern Studies” - Islam in Armenian Literary Culture. Texts, Contexts, Dynamics (Louvain: Peeters, 2021) (Hayagitut‘iwně ibrew Merdzawor-Mijin Arewelean Gitut‘iwn - Islamě Hay Grakan Mshakoyt‘in mēj. Bnagirner, Himnavayrer, Uzhěnt‘ats‘k‘), Armenian Weekly, August 11, 2021.

- “Islam in Armenian Literary Culture. Texts, Contexts, Dynamics” (in Armenian: Islamē Hay Grakan Mshakoyt‘in mēj. Bnagirner, Himnavayrer, Uzhěnt‘ats‘k‘), Aztag, June 20, 2021.

- “The Year of Armenian Studies: NAASR (National Association for Armenian Studies) Oct. 2002, Yerevan, September 2003, AIEA Venice/ Lecce Oct. 2003, Journal of Armenian Studies, vol. VIII, 2, Fall(2006), pp. 3-15.

- “The Armenian Meta-System and the Near Eastern Diaspora”, Workshop on Cultural Resistance and Globalization), in Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte, 2(2001) of Orientwissenschaftliches Zentrum. pp. 1-18.

- “Die Armenier und die islamische welt Paradigmen sozio-politischer Interaktion”, Armenisch-Deutsche Korrepondenz, 2(2000 #108), pp. 33-35.

- “A Unique phenomenon in Arab-Armenian Cultural Relations during the 13th Century”, Journal of Yerevan State University, II(1990), pp. 11-26.

Lectures/Talks (58)Italic text

- Lecture Series: Counterpoints. Philosophy, Historiography, Art - A Dialectical-Hermeneutical -Discursive Triangle. Atamian-Hovsepian Curatorial Practice, NY, NY 10010, March 14-May 2, 2024.

-Perception, Thought, Praxis. A Dialectical-Hermeneutical Perspective – March 14

-Aesthetics of Historical Thinking/Writing – April 4

-The Artwork and the Dialectics of Truth Content – May 2

- “Armenian Studies as Near/Middle Eastern Studies” ((Hayagitut‘iwně ibrew Merdzawor-Mijin Arewelean Gitut‘iwn), Aztag Lsaran, September 30, 2021, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “2015: Discourse on the Armenian Condition”, Center for Near Eastern Studies, UCLA, November 10, 2016, Los Angeles, CA.

- “2015 and an Analysis of the Armenian Condition”, Abril Bookstore, November 11, 2016, Los Angeles, CA.

- “Taking Things Armenian Beyond the Pillars of Hercules: Plus Ultra - A Discourse”, ARPA Institute (Analysis Research and Planning for Armenia), November 12, 2016, Los Angeles, CA.

- “A Hermeneutic Phenomenology of the Armenian Experience in the Islamic World − Paradigms of Interaction and Historicity,” Workshop of Padus-Araxes Association, University of Venice (Ca’ Foscari), Department of Asian and African, Mediterranean Studies, May 5, 2015, Los Angeles, CA.

- “The Prophet and Islam in Medieval Armenian History and Literature”, Workshop of Padus-Araxes Association, University of Venice, Department of Asian, African, Mediterranean Studies, May 5, 2015, Venice, Italy.

- “The Armenian Experience in the Islamic World: From Paradigms of Interaction to Contemporary Historicity”, Padua University, Department of Theology, May 4, 2015, Venice, Italy.

- “A New Historiography for a New Armenian Sensibility” [Nor Batmagitut‘iwn I Xndir Nor Hayazgac‘ut‘ean], Abril Bookstore, May 9, 2014, Los Angeles, CA.

- “The Armenian Historical Experience: The Impasse and the Discourse”, ARPA (Analysis Research and Planning for Armenia), May 8, 2014, Los Angeles, CA.

- “Conceptualizing and De-Conceptualizing Things Armenian: A Historical Hermeneutics”, UCLA, Near East Studies Department, Tuesday May 6, 2014, Los Angeles, CA.

- “Technology and the Moving Target of Happiness”, St. Gregory, April 4, 2014, White Plains, NY.

- “Things Armenian Beyond the Pillars of Hercules”, Haigazian University Cultural Hour, November 14, 2013, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “The Arrow of Truth between the Historic Experience and Historical Writing” [Chmartut‘ean Slak‘ě Batmakan P‘ordzin ew Batmagrut‘ean mijew], Aztag Lsaran, November 11, 2013, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “Armenian History Beyond the Pillars of Hercules: Plus Ultra”, NAASR (National Association for Armenian Studies), May 9, 2013, Boston, MA.

- “Armenian Realpolitik in the Islamic World Diverging Paradigms and the Case of Cilicia Tenth to Fourteenth Centuries”- The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), March 5, 1013, New York, NY.

- “Things Armenian and the Crisis of Armenian Studies: The Centers for Armenian Studies in Europe and the United States”, Aztag Lsaran/Auditorium-Hamazgayin Armenian Hall, Wednesday Dec.12, 2012, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “Armenian Identity, Knowledge and Studies: Synthesis and/or Controversy”, ARPA (Analysis Research and Planning for Armenia), Merdinian Auditorium, April 26, 2012, Los Angeles, CA.

- “The Armenians and Islam: Images for a Brighter History of the Armenians”, Lecture at Ararat Eskijian Museum, LA. April 22, 2012.

- “Meet the Author and Book Signing”, Abril Bookstore, April 17, 2012, Los Angeles, CA.

- “Rethinking Armenian History through Paradigms of Interaction: The Armenian Experience with Islam as Case Study”, Lecture at UCLA, Near East Studies Department, Bunche Hall, April 12, 2012.

- “Rethinking the Armenian Experience in the Near East”, Haigazian University, March 22, 2012, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “Armenian Narratives, Studies and Realities” (Hayapatum, Hayagitut’iwn, ew Hay Irakanut‘iwn), Aztag-Piwnik Hall, March 8, 2012, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “Historical Epistemology and the Intellectual: The Question of Armenian Culture Today” (Batmakan Imats‘abanut‘iwn ew Mtaworakanut‘iwn - Hay Mshakuyt‘i Harts‘ě Aysor), Inknagir, NPAG Center, December 15, 2011, Yerevan, Armenia.

- “Oriental and Armenian Studies”- Yerevan State University - Faculty of Oriental Studies, November 30, 2011, Yerevan, Armenia.

- “Episodes of the Unwritten History of Armenian Dissidence: In Search for the Truth about a People”- Khach‘atur Abovyan Teachers’ State University of Yerevan, November 11, 2011, Yerevan, Armenia.

- “Methodological Issues and Proposals for the Modernization of Armenian Studies” – Yerevan State University, Faculty of History, November 8, 2011, Yerevan, Armenia.

- "The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World- Paradigms of Interaction” – Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Nov. 3, 2011, Yerevan, Armenia.

- “Islam and the Armenians: Looking at the Near East Differently”, Armenian Studies Endowment at the University of Chicago and the Ara and Edma Dumanian Foundation, University of Chicago, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Pick Lounge, May 11, 2010, Chicago, MI.

- “The Armenian Awakening Eastern and Western -The Two Centuries of the Rebirth of the Modern Nation – Culture, Society, Church and Politics” – Symposium at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, (six sessions), September 2009 – May 2010, New Rochelle NY.

- “Armenian-Islamic Interactions and the Problematic of National Identity”, Armenian Presbyterian Church, November 8, 2009, Paramus NJ.

- “Khach‘atur Abovyan (1809-1848): Prophet and Martyr of the Armenian Awakening (Zart‘onk’)” – On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth, St. Gregory Church, October 26, 2009, White Plains, NY.

- “Islam and the Armenians: Paradigms of a Near Eastern Dialectic”, Armenian Studies Program, University of Michigan, International Institute, January 27, 2009, Ann Arbor, MI.

- “The Road from the Fortress of Sis to Republic Square, Yerevan: Milestones on the Six Hundred Year Journey of Armenians”, Holy Martyrs Church, Queens, New York, NY, January 8, 2009, New York, NY.

- “Grigor Tat‘evats‘i and Islam: Perceptions of the Self and the Other”, On the Occasion of the 600th of his Death, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, December 1, 2008, New Rochelle, NY.

- “The Problem of Stereotypes in the Teaching of Language and Culture”, Teachers’ College of the Eastern Diocese, July 21-26, 2008, New York, NY.

-“Khrimian Hayrik: The Visionary and the Wall of Reality”, On the occasion of the centenary of his death, Armenian Center, Queens, October 26, 2007, New York, NY.

- “Armenian Dissidence: Highlights of an Unwritten History- In Search of the ‘Truth’ about a People”, NAASR (National Association for Armenian Studies and Research), September 20, 2007, Boston, MA.

- “Armenian Painting in Lebanon in the Light of the Crisis of Identity”, Lecture at the Armenian Center, Queens, New York, January 19, 2007.

- “The Eznikian Synthesis and Armenian Intellectual Culture”, Lecture St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, October 16, 2006, New Rochelle, NY.

- “Studying Things Armenian as Things Middle Eastern”, Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center,

CUNY, March 27, 2006, New York, NY.

- “The Invention of the Armenian Alphabet: The Political Dimensions”, Zohrab Information and Research Center, February 16, 2006.

- “Islamic-Armenian Interactions in the Near East Historic Paradigms and Historicity - The Fāṭimid Armenians as Case Study”, Lecture at the Armenian General Benevolent Union- Cairo Chapter, Center of the Egyptian Supreme Cultural Council, May 4, 2004, Cairo, Egypt.

- “Islamic-Armenian Interactions in the Near East: Historic Paradigms and Historicity”, The Armenian General Benevolent Union - Cairo Chapter, The American University of Cairo - The Armenian Room, May 6, 2004, Cairo, Egypt.

- “The Progressive Origins of Armenian Feminism - Medieval Armenian Dissidence as the Historic Soil and Background”, Armenian General Benevolent Union - Cairo Chapter, Armenian Prelacy, May 7, 2004, Cairo, Egypt.

- “Grigor Narekats'i (951-1003): The Great Stranger” – On the Occasion of the Millennial of his Death, Hay Dun, January 30, 2004, Queens, NY.

- “The Rainbow Testament of Grigor Narekats‘i - A Re-evaluation of his Literary and Philosophical Legacy”, Haigazian University, March 27, 2003, Beirut, Lebanon.

- “Armenian-Turkish Realpolitik- 11th –12th Centuries”, Zohrab Center for Research, New York, August 5, 2002, New York, NY.

- “Armenian Persistence: Exploring National Identity-Myth versus Reality”, Armenian Center at Columbia University, May 15, 2002, New York, NY.

- “Feminism in Armenian History: Origins in Medieval Heresies”, AIWA (Armenian International Women’s Association), April 7, 2002, Boston, MA.

- “A 13th Century summary of the Rasā’il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ in Erzinjan, 1280”, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, February 25, 2002, Boston, MA.

- “Islam and the Armenians”, Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, February 9, 2000, New York, NY.

- “New Light on Armeno-Muslim Relations in the Middle Ages”, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, February 4, 2000, Boston, MA.

-“Islamic Sources on Armenia and Armenians: A Critical Exposé”- History Department, UCLA, February 1, 2000, 

Los Angeles, CA.

- “Islam and the Armenian Universe: Historic Models and Historicity”- Lecture at the History and Near Eastern Studies Department, UCLA, January 31, 2000, Los Angeles, CA.

- “Armenian Cultural Relations” - Department of Philosophy, Yerevan State University, May 20-24, 1991, Yerevan, Armenia.

Philosophical and Historiographic Views and Position Italic text

The social-historical comportment and embeddedness of social sciences, humanities and arts are central to Dadoyan’s scholarship and art. As a thinker, writer, historian and artist, she considers the perceptive, cognitive, and creative processes interrelated and identifies herself as a critical-dialectical hermeneut. This is a widely accepted contemporary way of looking at all issues critically and from multiple and contradictory perspectives, with no assumptions, predispositions, and inherited narratives. It developed after Kantian, Hegelian and Marxist traditions, through existentialism, hermeneutics, Critical Theory and deconstructionism. Its core theory of dialectics is now adopted by modern sciences, pedagogy and social sciences as well.

Considering all works in the social sciences, humanities and the arts as artifacts, Dadoyan also adopts Adorno’s idea that “authentic works are the self-unconscious historiography of their times.” [Theodor W. Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, Trans. Introd. Robert Hullot-Kento (New York: Continuum, 2002), p. 183.] Contradictions in social-political circumstances crystallize in all artifacts making them “historical” by the objectivation of perception and social consciousness. She elaborates a theory of “aesthetics of historical thinking/writing” and defines it as “the totality of the questions, perceptions, sensibilities, contradictions, tensions, insights, visions, as well as the formal and methodological criteria that go into the making of a relevant and engaging text.” The same comment applies to all artifacts, she explains. “Because a meaningful work is essentially an autonomous response to circumstances, and never a commodity on the academic or art markets.” She observes that the genuine inquirer in search of deeper understanding and meaning is part of the cognitive activity itself and introduces the concept of Heideggerian situatedness. In her Encounters and Convergences. A Book of Ideas and Art” (2023) she wrote: “In my literature and art counterpoints are tools in the dialectical and existential process of questioning, researching, and writing. They function as counterarguments, hence the inner tension both in writings and artworks. Through the interplay of contrasts and counterpoints, I have tried to open contexts or horizons for fresh insights and arguments. More than syntheses, these horizons are convergences, hence the title of the book.” (See Counterpoints. Philosophy, Historiography, Art (see Counterpoints lecture series, March-May 2024, in press).

A philosopher and painter, Dadoyan moved to historiography after publishing three volumes in art history and philosophy (between 1984 and 1991). Understanding her social-historical situatedness, or her condition, has been both a motive and a purpose. This condition which she shares with a great number of Armenians, is being a multilingual and multicultural Armenian native of the Islamic World, with immediate family and ancestors driven from all parts of the Armenian World. Her situatedness meant having multiple hyphenated identities and inheriting several legacies of ancient and modern civilizations, peoples, cultures and faiths, including her own. In the processes of “acculturation”, as she puts it, this condition required an urgency to understand the Armenian historical experience in comprehensive and critical terms, and not through assumptions and semi-epic narratives on the cultural marketplace, hence her interest and work in historiography. The initiative, she says, was a “Nietzschean reversal of the Cartesian cogito. Instead of ‘Cogito ergo sum’—I think therefore I am—, I started at my existence and moved to the thinking about it, I exist therefore I think or must think, ‘Sum ergo cogito’.” [Encounter and Convergences…, p. 53.]

Well-documented paradigm cases that stood as counter-cases, or counterpoints, as she calls them, have been her tools to initiate an overall and comprehensive critique of traditional perspectives and narratives of mainstream Armenian historiography. Commenting on her trilogy, The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World Prof. Peter Cowe of UCLA wrote, the “countercases in her groundbreaking study … problematize the teleologically constructed narrative of a stable collective sustained up to the present, as postulated by modern nationalism.” Over more than three decades, the paradigm cases that she excavated from primary, and mostly Arab sources, serve as counterarguments for a broader, multidimensional, and dialectical expanse of Armenian historical experiences in the Near and Middle Eastern worlds, that gradually became Islamic as of the middle of the 7th century. Through these volumes, “we are offered an incisive insight on the making of traditional histo¬rio¬graphy, and the limits of modern philology”, wrote Prof. Marc Nichanian of Columbia, and added, “Dadoyan has an incredible know¬ledge of the Arabic sources that had never been read before her in the same perspective — if at all. This new type of historical writing does not aim only at establishing new paradigms for understanding the numerous interconnections between Islam and Christianity in the Near East. It has also a powerful de¬cons¬tructive effect on the way we understand history since the 19th century … Dadoyan's volumes contribute to post-national re¬definitions of identity and thus pave the way to a renewed account of the Armenian presence in the Near East (and else¬where) in diasporic terms. Their narrative can be read as an anthro¬pology in the past tense. On all these accounts, it is not exaggerated to say that Dadoyan's work is revolutionary.”

Referring to her trilogy, one of the most prominent historians of the Arab World and Lebanon in particular Prof. Kamal Salibi (d. 2011) of AUB wrote: “Seta Dadoyan’s long research and publication in Islamic-Armenian interactions – an important but rarely researched interdisciplinary field – seems to have culminated in this very original and fascinating magnum opus. It brings into a comprehensive whole her “discoveries”, such as Armenian-Islamic urban or futuwwa coalitions, the Armenian translation and adoption of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’), Armenian realpolitik in al-Shām, the Fatimid Armenians, Muslim Armenians, mutual images and apologetic-polemical traditions, etc. As her other books and articles in this subject, this work in turn distinctly stands out of other Armenian medieval histories in its scope, novelty of the themes, and above all, the dynamic dialectical style in bringing out hitherto unnoticed aspects and unstudied issues and formulating arguments in both Armenian and Near Eastern Studies. Looking at the medieval, and the contemporary Near East as well through ‘Paradigms of Interaction’ is indeed a novel and intriguing exercise for scholars and those for whom history is not a mere and often subjective narration of a past but a perpetual critique and enjoyment … To specialists in medieval Islam, the Armenian dimension to the subject has always been tantalizing, yet scholarship, to date, has normally given it little more than the cavalier treatment. For the story of the medieval Islamic world to be told in full, the Armenian dimension to it needs to be fully addressed by imaginative scholars having complete command of Armenian humanities, and at the same time fully conversant with the Islamic side to the equation. This is the kind of scholar one rarely comes across, but it can exist, as is demonstrated by the pioneer work of Seta Dadoyan in the field.” Prof. Bernard Coulie of the Catholic University pf Louvain wrote that her work “brings along a new picture of the Armenian people, more diverse than the traditional view of a monolithic culture surviving through centuries of struggle. Seta Dadoyan demonstrates that the Armenian diversity is part of the Near East.” It makes “the Armenian case essential to any serious student of the Islamic medieval period”, says Prof. James Russell of Harvard University.

In the Epilogue of her Islam in Armenian Literary Culture. Texts, Contexts, Dynamics (Louvain, 2021) she says: “My most significant contribution to Armenian historiography will probably be the aesthetic of my historical thinking and writing, as mentioned. By the motto of Plus Ultra, or “further beyond” the Pillars of Hercules between the Mediterranean ‒ or the small pond of Armenian studies ‒ my journey aimed at crossing into the Atlantic, the broad ocean of contemporary Near Eastern studies. There is a more intriguing and aesthetically superior Armenian history out there, in the “land of unknown” beyond those pillars, as Plato would call it.”

Aesthetic and Art

Dadoyan’s last work Encounters and Convergences. A Book of Ideas and Art is an amalgam of philosophy and art. Written as an oeuvre, it is a statement about her art and scholarship in terms of encounters and convergences. While encounters mean confrontations and dynamic relationships with everything, convergences are meetings and the generation of new “horizons” where things come together for understanding and aesthetic enjoyment. In the case of her scholarship and art, the effort to arrive at horizons for convergences has been existential, directly related to the meaning of her existence and condition.

In her aesthetic, the cognitive aspect and social-historical embeddedness of all artifacts are pivotal concepts. She considers all artifacts as societal phenomena, and their content inseparable from their formal aspects. Looking at the marketplace of academia, arts, culture and entertainment, and despite seeming and apparent liberalism, she sees massive standardization that practically evens out society and cancels autonomy and critical spirit. She adopts Adorni’s idea that as carefully planned and made artifacts, artworks have their inner logicality, which is different from discursive reasoning. As in a syllogism, one step follows the next by a formal necessity, and the work gains its logical consistency, and unity. For Adorno aesthetic logic has a greater degree of latitude than ordinary logic. Dadoyan believes that great artworks defy ordinary reasoning without negating it.

In her Encounters and Convergences, she suggests a paradigm shift from the artist to the artwork, for an alternative hypothesis for aesthetic judgment. She suggests focusing on the artwork, as a concrete entity, a thing-in-itself that is created as a dynamic unity between a form and a truth content. It has specific social and historical comportment or bearing, hence its truth content. She strongly shares the hermeneutical perspective on the relationship between the inquirer/artist and the object of knowledge. They are one in the cognitive and creative processes in quest for new meanings and understanding. The sensitivities of artists and intellectuals, as well as the depth of their understanding, vary, she says, but their works reflect their distance from and concern for these issues. In the end, the truth-content of the given artifact becomes the measure of its comport and value.

Around ninety works featured in the book fall under two major categories: “Wartime Art” and “Spirit of Matter.” The former are works from the Lebanese war (1975-1991) the latter are works made from 2022-2023 in New York. In the first group the human figure is dominant. She explains, “The human condition in wartime and massive suffering were central to my thinking, and inevitably, the human figure became dominant in my work.” After a withdrawal of almost three decades, in the second group the human figure receded, and nature gained ground. “I seemed to be trying to reveal and speak of the spirit of matter …I was not avoiding my basic humanism; I had developed a form of hard humanism.” Also, like my wartime drawing, I could only think and work in black. Adorno explains: “… to survive reality at its most extreme and grim, artworks that do not want to sell themselves as consolation must equate themselves with that reality. Radical art today is synonymous with dark art; its primary color is black…” [Adorno, Aesthetic Theory, p. 40]. In the conclusion of her Encounters and Convergences, she wrote: “My works were simultaneously counterpoints and paths to deeper yet not final understandings. An interdisciplinary look at my last drawings and my recent literature will immediately detect their unity, even in style and the aesthetic of writing and drawing. The banyan trees penetrating the forest and breaking through brick walls, spiraling rock-bridges, steep stairs, and rocks sprouting spirits are essentially images of confrontations and convergences, in drawing and writing.”

External links

• Seta Dadoyan lecture on 4/22/12 on "The Armenians and Islam" (YouTube video)
• Seta Dadoyan lecture on 5/26/12 on "Armenian Identity, Knowledge and Studies: Synthesis and/or Controversy" (YouTube video)