Sebouh David Aslanian is the Richard Hovannisian Term Chair of Modern Armenian History, estab-lished by the Armenian Educational Foundation, at the department of history at UCLA. He has taught at the department of history at CSU-Long Beach as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2010 after serving a year at Cornell University as a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral fellow in world history. He received his Ph.D. (with distinction) from Columbia University in 2007.
ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT AN EVENT
THE ARARAT-ESKIJIAN MUSEUM
THE ARMENIAN SOCIETY OF LOS ANGELES
THE ARMENIAN EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR ARMENIAN STUDIES AND RESEARCH
PRESENT
FROM THE INDIAN OCEAN TO THE MEDITERRANEAN: THE GLOBAL TRADE NETWORKS OF ARMENIAN MERCHANTS FROM NEW JULFA
A Lecture by Dr. Sebouh Aslanian
Richard Hovannisian Term Chair of Modern Armenian History,
Established by the Armenian Educational Foundation,
University of California, Los Angeles
**Sunday, March 18, 2012 – 4:00 p.m.**
at The Armenian Society of Los Angeles, Main Hall
Drawing on a rich trove of documents, including correspondence not seen for 300 years, Dr. Sebouh Aslanian's groundbreaking study From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean (University of California Press) explores the emergence and growth of a remarkable global trade network operated by Armenian silk mer-chants from a small outpost in the Persian Empire. Based in New Julfa, Isfahan, in what is now Iran, these merchants operated a network of commercial settlements that stretched from London and Amsterdam to Manila and Acapulco.
Aslanian brings to light the trans-imperial cosmopolitan world of the New Julfans, the effects of long distance trade on the organization of community life, the ethos of trust and cooperation that existed among merchants, and the importance of information networks and communication in the operation of early mod-ern mercantile communities.
From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean was selected by the Committee of the “California World Histo-ry Library” as the first book to appear in their new series, “Author's Imprint,” that celebrates and recogniz-es “exceptional scholarship by first-time authors.” It received the 2011 Houshang Pourshariati Book Award in Iranian Studies and the PEN literary award for outstanding first book of the year from UC Press.
