- Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian (born
April 8 ,1934 inTabriz ,Iran ) is an American academic, currently serving as thepresident ofCarnegie Corporation of New York .After receiving his dual Ph.D. in
history andhumanities fromStanford University in 1964, Gregorian served on the faculties at several American universities before joining the faculty of theUniversity of Pennsylvania , where he became the founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1974, and the provost in 1978. From 1981 to 1989, Gregorian served as president of theNew York Public Library , an eight-year tenure which would prove one of his most lasting legacies.In 1989, he was chosen to become president of
Brown University , where he served until 1997. In 1995, he was offered the presidency ofColumbia University , which he declined due to his commitment to Brown's capital campaign. In 1997, he was selected aspresident of the philanthropicCarnegie Corporation of New York , his current position as of 2008. He is also a trustee of theMuseum of Modern Art in New York and a member of the advisory board of thePARSA Community Foundation .He has received the
National Humanities Medal and thePresidential Medal of Freedom , the highest civilian award in theUnited States . Gregorian is on the advisory board ofUSC Center on Public Diplomacy and is a member of the editorial board of theEncyclopædia Britannica . [ [http://corporate.britannica.com/board/gregorian.html Board of Editors: Vartan Gregorian] . "Encyclopædia Britannica " (retrieved June 26, 2006).]A
Phi Beta Kappa and aFord Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellow, he is a recipient of numerous fellowships, including those from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, theSocial Science Research Council and theAmerican Philosophical Society . He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts of Sciences.He has also received (as of 2006)
honorary degree s from fifty-six institutions. He documented much of his private life in his 2003autobiography "The Road to Home: My Life and Times".Early life
Gregorian was born in
Tabriz ,Iran , to Samuel B. Gregorian and Shushanik G. Mirzaian. His family belonged to the minority Armenian Christian population. At age six, Gregorian's mother, then twenty-six, died in childbirth. His father distanced himself from Gregorian, and Gregorian and his younger sister Ojik were raised by Voski Mirzaian, his maternal grandmother. [ [http://groong.usc.edu/tcc/tcc-20030616.html Book Review: "The Road to Home" by Vartan Gregorian] . Armenian News Network / Groong (retrieved June 10, 2006).]Elementary and secondary education
Gregorian attended elementary school in Iran. In his autobiography, in discussing the events that led to his secondary education, Gregorian refers to several "strangers" who allowed this transition in his life to take place (and eventually move him to the
United States ). First, in 1948, Edgar Maloyan, the Gaullist French vice-consul in Tabriz at the time, suggested to Gregorian that he ought to go to Beirut, Lebanon to continue his education and provided him with three letters of introduction: [http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2003-09/gregorian.html "A Conversation with Vartan Gregorian"] . "National Endowment for the Humanities " (retrieved June 22, 2006).] one to the head of the Lebanese Internal Security Agency, one to the "Collège Arménien", and one to a hotel where he could stay.French, Yvonne. [http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0307-8/gregorian.html "Vartan Gregorian Speaks at Library"] . "Library of Congress " (retrieved June 22, 2006).] Gregorian also procured the assistance of another stranger in Tabriz to obtain his passport to get to Lebanon:The head of the
Armenian Relief Society of Lebanon—also a stranger to him—arranged to provide Gregorian with meals for a monthly cost of $6.15 as well as lodging. He learned French and completed his secondary education at the "Collège Arménien" in Beirut.Simon Vratsian , former prime minister of the pre-SovietDemocratic Republic of Armenia and then director of the college, advised Gregorian to attend a university in theUnited States in the vicinity of a large Armenian population. In 1956, he applied to only two universities—theUniversity of California, Berkeley andStanford University —and was admitted by each. Stanford's acceptance arrived byairmail months before Berkeley's did by surface mail, at which point Gregorian had already enrolled at Stanford. [http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2005/sepoct/features/gregorian.html "The Lionheart"] . "Stanford Magazine" (retrieved June 22, 2006).]tanford
Gregorian was twenty-two when he began his undergraduate education at Stanford in 1956. He developed an affinity for European history due to his relationship with his freshman mentor Wayne S. Vucinich, a historian of
Eastern Europe and theOttoman Empire . He completed his B.A. inhistory andhumanities with honors in 1958; the topic of his thesis was "Toynbee andIslam ."While a student at Stanford, he again received provisions from
Armenians who were strangers to him. He explains how this consistent benevolence reaffirmed his faith in the Armenian community in the diaspora and diaspora communities in general:He would go on to receive his Ph.D. in
history andhumanities from Stanford in 1964, writing a dissertation entitled "Traditionalism and Modernism in Islam." The topic of his dissertation was related to an ongoing research project which he began in 1961, after being nominated for aFord Foundation fellowship which took him toAfghanistan . He also used the experience for his first book, "The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1840-1946" (1969,Stanford University Press ).Professorships
Prior to receiving his Ph.D., Gregorian had already begun teaching European and Middle Eastern history at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) upon returning to California from Afghanistan in 1962. He left San Francisco State in 1968 and for a brief stint served as Associate Professor at UCLA. That same year he transferred to the
University of Texas at Austin , where he remained until 1972. He received the title of Professor at UT Austin, and also served as the Director of Special Programs there from 1970-1972. [http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/PublicLaws/law97/res97/res97386.html Rhode Island House Resolution 386: Recognizing [Gregorian's] Distinguished Academic and Administrative Career] . June 24, 1997 (retrieved September 5, 2006).]While at UT Austin, Gregorian had befriended
John Silber , then Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences who was fired by the administration over a disagreement about whether to increase the university's student population and expand the university. Gregorian himself resigned in protest of the issue, but did not follow Silber and a number of other faculty members in their exodus toBoston University . Rather, in 1972, Gregorian accepted the position of Tarzian Professor of Armenian and Caucasian History and Professor of South Asian history at theUniversity of Pennsylvania , an endowed professorship which allowed him to teach Armenian, South Asian, and European intellectual history.When in 1974 the University of Pennsylvania merged its College for Men and College for Women, Gregorian was named Dean of the School of Arts and Science, the first person to hold this position. In 1978, he became Provost, the second highest administrative position at the university. By this point in his career, Gregorian was preparing to become the administrative head of an American university.
In 1980, then-president of the University of Pennsylvania
Martin Meyerson announced his retirement, and Gregorian anticipated to succeed Meyerson. In fact, Gregorian was a candidate for the chancellorship at UC Berkeley but had withdrawn his candidacy in expectation of the appointment in Pennsylvania. But Gregorian was never appointed President of the University of Pennsylvania. "The story generally accepted," writes one Stanford alumnus in a 2005 interview with Gregorian, "is that some Philadelphia mandarins on Penn's board couldn’t tolerate a foreign name and accent—someone they saw as insufficiently polished and pedigreed—as president of their Ivy League institution." In 1981, Gregorian resigned as Provost, andSheldon Hackney was named President of the University of Pennsylvania that year.Awards and Honors
Recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Trivia
* Vartan Gregorian is featured in the 2005 dramatic-documentary satire "
The American Ruling Class ". He is characterized as part of America's ruling "elite."References
External links
* [http://www.carnegie.org/sub/about/vgregorian.html Carnegie Corporation Biography]
* [http://www.loc.gov/locvideo/gregorian/ Library of Congress video of Gregorian discussing autobiography]
* [http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=11324 Gregorian's 2005 Notre Dame commencement speech]
* [http://uscpublicdiplomacy.com USC Center on Public Diplomacy]
* [http://www.brookings.edu/press/books/islam.htm Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith by Vartan Gregorian (Brookings, 2003)]
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