Stonehill Prof. Anna Ohanyan Awarded Fulbright Fellowship to Armenia

A native of Yerevan, Ohanyan graduated from Yerevan State University in Armenia, received a master’s degree in conflict resolution from the School of Social and Systemic Studies at Nova Southeastern University in Florida and earned her doctorate in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, New York. Before  joining Stonehill College as a faculty member, Ohanyan received pre-doctoral and a post-doctoral fellowships from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Ohanyan was selected for the Fulbright program after an intensive application process and approval by the US Embassy in Armenia.
Ohanyan was chosen as a 2012-2013 recipient to conduct her research and teach in Armenia. Ohanyan explains her goals for this
fellowship year: “My proposal entails teaching two courses at a local University while also researching regional integration in politically divided areas, such as the Balkans and South Caucasus. At the end, this research will result in my second book, and I am hoping to produce a first draft by the end of my Fulbright tenure here in Armenia.”

Together with her three daughters, Isabelle Ani, Elise Mariam and Helen Susanna, Ohanyan made the move from Massachusetts.
According to Ohanyan, the only drawback to her fellowship experience has been being away from her husband Aram Adourian, who
first encouraged Ohanyan to apply to Fulbright but was unable to make the move.

Despite the distance, Ohanyan notes that Adourian visits frequently and remains supportive of her goals during this year abroad.
As part of her return to the Yerevan community, Ohanyan has noted the juxtaposition of progress and the need for improvements in
the city. “The downtown is beautiful, and some of the big retail chains, particularly the luxury stores, have firmly planted their ‘flags’
in Armenia. At the same time, in relative terms, Armenia is lagging behind when compared to its immediate neighbor — Georgia.
Georgia has managed to create a much better business environment than Armenia, which even attracts some Armenian businesses. In
political terms, Georgia made a giant step towards consolidating its democracy by holding free and fair elections which produced a
peaceful transfer of power in the Parliament. Georgia seems to be emerging as a regional leader, and unless Armenian government
accelerates its reform efforts, Armenia is in danger of becoming marginal in the Caucasus.”

Ohanyan has witnessed firsthand the political and economic challenges facing Armenia. She remains optimistic about European
reform efforts in Armenia, and cites the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (EU) as one step
towards achieving economic stability, though she believes that Armenia should carefully assess economic integration models like those implemented in Russia before adopting them wholeheartedly. Ohanyan is hopeful that Armenia can make the necessary changes to strengthen the economy and create new opportunities. She believes that many of the larger hindrances to economic growth — poverty and unemployment — are political in nature. She adds, “The reform processes in various areas are slow and in some cases inefficient. The rule of law is applied unevenly, and access to economic opportunities is politicized.”

Likewise, Ohanyan says that Armenian universities need to attract more foreign students to aid the economy, but that they are deterred by the government requirement that students take a year to learn Armenian prior to attending university in Armenia.
When asked whether she sees any similarities between Armenia’s challenges and those observed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ohanyan noted that “corruption and high administrative hurdles in starting up businesses are common in both countries. Armenia is fortunate relative to Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of not having the multitiered administrative system and internal divisions along ethnic lines, which literally divides the economic space in the country […] However, in sharp contrast to the Caucasus, there are numerous and systematic outlets of cooperation between the states in the region, despite the deep political tensions between them.”