Shagoyan, Gayane - Alumni network

Gayane Shagoyan was born in 1972. In 1990 she started her studies in Social Anthropology at Yerevan State University from where she graduated, holding a M.A., in 1995. From 1997 until 2004, Gayane wrote her dissertation on “Invariant and transformation of Armenian Wedding Ceremony” at the institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. Her research interests are Armenian Traditional Culture and Armenian Culture and Society in Transition. Gayane won several awards and has many years experience of field work.  She also is the author of a broad range of publications.

Gayane Shagoyan's research is related to the second biggest city of Armenia – Gyumri (the former Leninakan), which experienced a destroying earthquake on the 7th of December 1988. The research will include issues concerning the transient way of life after the earthquake, collision of cultures (a result of the international aid), the new space mastering (for example, building up  new housing estates, their official and non-official toponymy, appearance of the new cemeteries and transformation of the old ones, the new trash dumps with a specific life), anthropology of the temporary dwelling (tents, temporary houses: building materials, interior, reconstructions, dismantling, the home mythology), changes in the cuisine and in the perception on the edible and the inedible (“food for men” and “food for animals”), the prestige marking of the clothes distributed by the international aid, the earthquake day commemoration as a special ritual complex, the shift of the monuments, the urban mythology of the earthquake. In the frames of the research, the strategies of the city’s reconstruction and development as well as their actual realization will also be considered and compared. It will be interesting to observe, how the potential of an ideal city diminishes as the real constructions are being developed.