Gohar Grigoryan

Dr

photo

 gohar.grigoryan@unifr.ch
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4996-7314

Competence areas

Political theology and visualization of secular power; Armenian and Eastern Christian Studies; Codicology and miniature painting; Holy Land and pilgrimage - materiality and ritual; Architecture and liturgy; Female patronage and devotional practices; Material and visual cultures of the Caucasus and Eastern Mediterranean; Medieval aesthetics; Provenance studies; History of Armenian printing (16th-20th cc); Art historiography (19th-21st cc).

Lecturer
Institute for Medieval Studies

MIS 02 bu. 2020A
Av. de l'Europe 20
1700 Fribourg
MIS 02, 2020A

Senior Researcher
Department of Art History and Archeology

MIS 02 bu. 2020A
Av. de l'Europe 20
1700 Fribourg
MIS 02, 2020A

Biography

Gohar Grigoryan is an art historian and codicologist, with strong interest in history, philology and theology. She received her PhD in 2017 from the University of Fribourg for her dissertation on royal images of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia (summa cum laude). She has held research and teaching positions at the Universities of Fribourg, Bern, and Florence, at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and the Matenadaran Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan. Her work has been supported by Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship 2013-2016, Zeno Karl Schindler Foundation (Geneva), NAASR (Belmont), AGBU (New York), Getty Foundation (Los Angeles), SNSF, and Samuel H. Kress Foundation (New York). She is the recipient of the Best Conference Paper Award 2015, awarded by the Society for Armenian Studies (California State University, Fresno).

Grigoryan’s main research interests revolve around medieval Armenian art, architecture, and aesthetics within the large Eurasian area in general and in the South Caucasian and Eastern Mediterranean regions more particular. She is the editor of the first complete bibliography of publications printed by the Armenian Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin until the sovietisation of Armenia in 1920 (Etchmiadzin press 2021), co-editor of two collective volumes (Brepols/Harvey Miller 2023; Viella 2023) and author of many peer-reviewed articles and essays. Her recent publications focus on political rituals, manuscript studies, and materiality of religious worship.

Research and publications

  • Conference papers
    26 publications

    An almost perfect balance: Images of married couples in medieval Armenia
    Gohar Grigoryan, Gender and Visuality in Premodern Societies: Perspectives and Challenges, University of Fribourg: (3.12.2025) | Conference

    Does the representation of gender vary if the commissioner is a woman?
    Gohar Grigoryan, Armenian and Georgian Women Patrons (IX-XIV Centuries), University of Florence: (24.11.2025) | Conference

    Reading Yovhannēs-Hanna's History of Jerusalem as a pilgrim
    Gohar Grigoryan, Verbal Evocations of Site-Bound Holiness, University of Fribourg: (21.5.2025) | Conference

    The Assizes of Antioch and the visualisation of the king's institution in Cilician Armenia
    Gohar Grigoryan, XVI General Conference of the Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes (AIEA), University of Geneva and University of Lausanne: (10.1.2025) | Conference

  • Lectures
    13 publications

    Secular Images in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean (12th-14th Centuries)
    Gohar Grigoryan, a lecture within MA seminar series of the Department of Arts & Archaeology, Lebanese University Beirut (9.5.2025) | Conference

  • Online resources
    2 publications

    Manuscript description (Cod. 1513, Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen, Switzerland)
    Gohar Grigoryan , e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland (2017) | Other

  • Publications
    28 publications

    Images of Christ Emmanuel and Christus Victor in British Library Add. 19548 , in Manuscript Treasures from Afro-Eurasia: Scribes, Patrons, Collectors, and Readers, ed. by J. Gnisci, S. Dege-Müller, J. Karlsson, and V. Pisani, in collaboration with A. Bausi (Berlin: De Gruyter), pp. 155-212
    Gohar Grigoryan (2025), ISBN: 9783111636344 | Book chapter

    Stac‛oł (acquirer, commissioner, donor, patron) , in Philological Practices: A Comparative Historical Lexicon, ed. by G. W. Most, A. Eusterschulte, and M. Kern (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, forthcoming)
    Gohar Grigoryan (2025) | Book chapter

    Wooden Bookstands of the Medieval South Caucasus: A Catalogue and Analysis , in Above the Curve: Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Woodwork in Mediterranean and Balkan Perspective, 11th–16th Centuries, ed. by P. Androudis (Athens: Editions of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, forthcoming)
    Gohar Grigoryan (2025) | Book chapter

    Culto e iconografia di San Nicola nell’Armenia medievale [also in French (Editions du Cerf) and German (Schnell und Steiner)] , in San Nicola, ed. by S. Chierici (Milan: San Paolo, forthcoming)
    Gohar Grigoryan (2025) | Book chapter

Teaching and courses

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