CSUN Armenian Studies Program to Host Zaruhy Sarah Chitjian Room Dedication
Media Contact: Alondra Ponce, alondra.ponce.432@my.csun.edu, or Javier Rojas, javier.rojas@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130
California State University, Northridge’s Armenian Studies Program will be hosting a room dedication in honor of Zaruhy Sarah Chitjian and her parents, Hampartzoum and Ovsanna. Zaruhy Chitjian was a life-long teacher and advocate for Armenian history and culture in teaching curriculum.
The ceremony will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 14 from 5 to 8 p.m. The event begins with a brief dedication and ribbon cutting in Sierra Tower 404.
“This is an opportunity to not only educate students, but because part of the collection will be in the special collections in the CSUN University Library, it is open to anyone who is doing research with the topic of the Armenian genocide and culture,” said Suren Papken Seropian, one of the organizers of the ceremony.
The displays will show a history of Chitjians’ family beginnings before the Armenian genocide in 1915 up until 2022, when she passed away. It will tell a story of how her parents separately arrived in Mexico City, got married, had children and moved to Los Angeles.
“The Chitjian family collection first and foremost contributes to the study of Armenian cultural history at the micro level,” said Vharam Shemmassian, professor and director of the Armenian Studies Program. “It also opens new venues for the understanding of the Armenian Genocide, thereby humanizing the calamity rather than just rendering it a narration of numbers and chain of events. Given the Chitjian family stayed several years in Mexico before entering their final destination of the United States, the various items in their holding shed new light on the little studied Armenian community in that country as well as Armenian -Mexican relations.”
The room will hold a collection of her and her family’s archive, displaying letters written by her father to his brothers during the Armenian genocide, recordings and photos with well-known Armenian figures.
Archives, including the Chitjian family’s records, provide unique and personal evidence of the ways individuals experience historical events and eras we typically learn about by studying broad, large-scale narratives,” said Ellen Jarosz, head of CSUN’s special collections and archives. “The Chitjian documents, photographs, artifacts, ephemera and other materials are rich resources with which researchers and community members will study the past for generations to come.”
After the dedication, attendees will walk from Sierra Tower to the Whitsett Room on the fourth floor of Sierra Hall, where there will be a dinner and full program of speakers, including the Director of the Armenian Studies Program, from 6 to 8 p.m.
“It is really a foundation of information. Even though the genocide is a huge part of our history and story, she always advocated that there is more to us then just the genocide, there is a 2000-year long history,” Seropian said, who is the Sr. Director of Development for the Andrew J. Anagnost College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Around 8 to 10% of the student body of CSUN is of Armenian descent, making it one of the highest concentrations of Armenian students at any university in the U.S., Seropian said. “This dedication furthers the story of the American experience here on campus. It adds to the contribution that Armenians have made to the campus and continue to make.”
CSUN’s College of Humanities prepares students to graduate with the necessary skills to succeed in a highly diverse world, helping students find careers in various fields. Sarah Chitjian donated two-thirds of her estate to CSUN to support the Armenian Studies Program, augmenting their resources and education.
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