NAASR announces winners of 2026 Dr. Sona Aronian Armenian Studies Book Prizes

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) is pleased to announce the 2026 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies, awarded to Dr. Houri Berberian and Dr. Talinn Grigor for “The Armenian Woman, Minoritarian Agency, and the Making of Iranian Modernity, 1860-1979” (Stanford University Press) and Tenny Arlen and Dr. Jesse Arlen for “To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here?” (Tarkmaneal Press). The 2026 awards are for books with a 2025 publication date.

Dr. Houri Berberian is professor of history, Meghrouni Family Presidential Chair in Armenian Studies and director of the Center for Armenian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Her books include “Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911” (2001) and “Roving Revolutionaries” (2019), a 2020 Aronian Book Prize winner. Dr. Talinn Grigor is professor of art and architectural history at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of the winner of the Saidi-Sirjani Book Award, “The Persian Revival” (2021), as well as “Contemporary Iranian Art” (2014) and “Building Iran” (2009).