Adjunct Faculty
Lilit Ghazaryan is a linguistic anthropologist whose research focuses on language socialization, education, and language ideology in post-Soviet Armenia. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she defended her dissertation titled "Comrades, Conflicts, and Classrooms: Language Policy and Practice in Post-Soviet Armenian Education" in 2024. Her ethnographic research draws on extended fieldwork in Armenian kindergartens to examine how state language policies, historical legacies, and recent geopolitical events shape everyday communicative practices in early childhood education.
At AUA, Ghazaryan teaches courses such as Introduction to Cultural Anthropology and the Freshman Seminar sequence. Her teaching integrates critical theory with hands-on ethnographic methodology, encouraging students to engage with their social worlds through an anthropological lens. She also serves as a Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, where she continues her ethnographic work on education, language policy, and the sociopolitical impacts of war and migration on language.
Ghazaryan has presented her work at international conferences on topics ranging from language ideologies in early childhood education to bilingualism and peer socialization. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the UCLA Division of Social Sciences.
Education
PhD, University of California, Los Angeles,
Department of Anthropology, Specialization: Linguistic Anthropology
Dissertation:
MA in Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
MA Thesis: “Speak Beautifully: Language Policies and Practices in Public Kindergartens in Armenia”
BA in Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles
Major: Linguistics and Anthropology, Minor: Russian Language
Magna Cum Laude / College Honors / Dean’s Honor
BA Thesis: “Metalinguistic Awareness among Armenian-English Bilingual Children”
Office location
117W PAB
Office hours
May vary per semester, email to schedule appointments.
Courses currently taught
FS1: Freshman Seminar 1
FS2: Freshman Seminar 2
CHSS194: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology