Dr. Naira Sahakyan is an Assistant Professor in History at the American University of Armenia. Her
research focuses on ethnoreligious nationalism and political discourses in the Caucasus and the
Middle East. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Humanities from the University of
Amsterdam (Netherlands) and a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies from Yerevan State University
(Armenia).
Dr. Sahakyan served as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge for the academic year
2022-2023, a library-affiliated scholar at the University of Illinois from 2022 to 2024, and a visiting
scholar at the University of Washington in 2018.
She is the author of Muslim Reformers and the Bolsheviks: The Case of Daghestan (Routledge,
2022) and Armenian Price of Peace: The Revolutions of 1917 and the Future of Armenia in the
Perception of the Armenian Intelligentsia (Newmag, 2023, in Armenian). Her current research
interests include the transformations of ethnoreligious nationalisms in the Caucasus and the
impact of the regional conflicts on the identities of the people in the Caucasus countries started
from the late imperial era. Sahakyan’s research has been published in high-ranked journals,
including Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Central Asian Survey, Revolutionary Russia,
and Caucasus Survey.
Education
Dr. Philosophy (in Humanities), University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Thesis: Sahakyan Naira. 2021. “Muslim Reformism in Daghestan: Islamic Politics and Muslim Education After the
Russian Revolution.” [Thesis, Universiteit van Amsterdam] (Defended: 4 April 2021)
PhD Candidate, History Department, European University of Saint Petersburg, Russia
MA in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University,
Armenia
BA in Arabic Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University, Armenia
Office location
429W
Email
[email protected]
Phone
(+374 95) 07 02 79
Areas of research and teaching specialization
Ethnoreligious Nationalisms, Islam in the Caucasus and the Middle East, Ethno-religious minorities,
Late-Imperial and early Soviet Armenian History, Conflicts in the Post-Soviet Space, War Narratives,
Political Discourses of the Leaders of the Caucasus
Courses currently taught
FND221 Armenian History 1
FND222 Armenian History 2
CHSS286 Comparative Genocide
CHSS127 World Civilizations
Research Database IDs
ORCID: 0000-0001-8595-7044
Scopus Author ID: 57202206448
Web of Science ResearcherID: AAS-2447-2021
Research Activities/Projects
The Combination of Islam and Nationalism in Countries Adjacent to Armenia (Turkey, Iran,
Azerbaijan and Georgia): Transformations of Identity and Politics, Science Committee, RA
The Azerbaijan-Turkey-Armenia Triangle: Transformations of War Narratives Through the
Speeches of State Leaders, 2002-2022, University of Cambridge and the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation
The Azerbaijan-Turkey-Armenia Triangle: Transformations of War Narratives Through the
Speeches of State Leaders, 1991-2002, ANSEF
Selected Publications
Monographs
Sahakyan, Naira. Armenian Price of Peace: The Revolutions of 1917 and the Future of
Armenia in the Perception of the Armenian Intelligentsia. Newmag, 2023 (in Armenian)
Sahakyan, Naira. Muslim Reformers and Bolsheviks: The Case of Daghestan (Routledge,
2022). ISBN 9781032216201
Peer-Reviewed Articles
w/Sevak Karamyan. “Armenia.” In Yearbook of Muslims in Europe v. 15, Brill, 2024 (upcoming)
“Framing the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: An Analysis of the Narratives of the State Leaders
of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey, 2002-2022.” Central Asian Survey (upcoming)
The rhetorical face of enmity: The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the dehumanization of
Armenians in the speeches by Ilham Aliyev." Southeast European and Black Sea Studies
(November 2022), DOI: 10.1080/14683857.2022.2153402
Sahakyan, Naira, Brutian, Anush. “Islamic Solidarity on Sale: the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
in the context of Azerbaijan’s Nation-Branding Endeavors.” International Journal of
Armenian Genocide Studies, 7(2), (2022).
“A Local Face of Revolution: The Confrontation of the Dagestani ‘Ulamā’ over Najm al-Dīn
Gotsinsky’s Imamate and the Russian Revolutions of 1917,” Revolutionary Russia, 35:1,
(2022): 72-93, DOI: 10.1080/09546545.2022.2071138
“Searching for Democracy, Finding Nationalism: The First Republic of Armenia in the Post-
Revolutionary Discourse of 2018.” Caucasus Survey, 10: 1 (2022): 76–99
“Language debate and the visions of future in Revolutionary Dagestan,” Caucasus Survey,
6:2, (2018): 147-162
Book Reviews
Clientelism and Nationality in an Early Soviet Fiefdom: The Trials of Nestor Lakoba, written by
Timothy Blauvelt. Caucasus Survey, 2023. DOI: 10.30965/23761202-bja10026
Black Garden Aflame: The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Soviet and Russian Press, Ed. by
Artyom Tonoyan. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2022. DOI:
10.1080/14782804.2022.2132037
Turkey, Kemalism, and the Soviet Union: Problems of Modernization, Ideology and
Interpretation, by Vahram Ter-Matevosyan. Ab Imperio 4, (2019): 214-219
Writers and Rebels: the literature of insurgency in the Caucasus, by Rebecca Gould.
Caucasus Survey, 6:1, (2018): 81-83