ARPA Institute will host a lecture on "The Theme of Genocide in Armenian-American Literature" by Prof. Barlow Der Mugerdechian.

It will be held on Thursday night, April 28, 2011, at 7:30 pm in the Merdinian Armenian Evangelical School in Sherman Oaks, ARPA President Hagop Panossian reported.

Dr. Barlow Der Mugrdechian is the Coordinator of the Armenian Studies Program and Director of the Center for Armenian Studies at Fresno State University. He was appointed to the position in August of 2008. In 1985, he was hired at California State University, Fresno to teach Armenian language, literature, and culture courses through the Armenian Studies Program. For the past twenty-four years he has taught courses in Armenian language, history, literature, culture, art church and a variety of other topics on Armenia and the Armenians.

He received his M.A. and C. Philosophy degrees from UCLA, where he majored in Armenian Language and Literature through the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. In September of 2010, His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos and Supreme Patriarch of the Armenian Church, bestowed upon Der Mugrdechian the St. Nerses Shnorhali (the Graceful) medal and encyclical. This was for service to the Armenian Church.