Lusine Kharatyan was born in Yerevan in 1977. In 1999, she graduated with distinction from the History Department of Yerevan State University. She holds a Masters degree in Public Policy/ Social Policy (2004) from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, USA, and a General Diploma (2000) in Demography from the Cairo Demographic Center, Cairo, Egypt.

Since 2012 Lusine Kharatyan heads DVV International (Institute for International Cooperation of German Adult Education Association) Armenia Country Office. For the past six years she has been extensively involved in DVV-initiated Armenia-Turkey reconciliation project “Speaking to One Another: Adult Education and Oral History Contributing to Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation,” first as an expert, then coordinator and finally becoming the main lead from Armenia. Through non-formal education, oral history research and student learning, the project has contributed to democratization in both societies and is widely recognized as one of the most successful civic initiatives in this field. Lusine’s past experience includes research and practical work on civil society development in Armenia, education sector reforms, and integration issues of refugees (including a one-year Boell fellowship). Her research interests include anthropology of borderline cultures, border symbolism, border-center relations and perception of motherland, refugee culture and migrant populations, social/cultural impact of policy reforms, civil society formation in Armenia, and value systems and their transformation. Lusine holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota and a Diploma with distinction from the History Department of Yerevan State University.

In the frameworks of the HBF Scholarship Programme Lusine Kharatyan’s research topic “Alienated" in one’s own group?” Adaptation Specifics of Armenian Refugees from Azerbaijan in Armenia: The case of Vardenis Region of Gegharkunik Marz of the Republic of Armenia” deals with the socio-cultural aspects of adaptation of Armenian refugees in one of the rural areas of Armenia. It is aimed to reveal a model of “mine – non mine” in today’s Armenian society, based on the case of refugee adaptation in a new place. Models of adaptation of “new” territory by refugees, i.e. mechanisms of cultural pioneering and adaptation of “alien” territory, as well as the formation of interrelations between refugees and locals in the context of “mine” and “mine-non mine” are examined.

Research topic: Освоение «чужого» пространства: армяне-беженцыв «азербайджанских» селах Армении