The Armenian History Lecture Series at University of California, Irvine continued last week with a lecture by author Tom Mooradian, Asbarez reported.

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Mooradian’s biography The Repatriate: Love, Basketball and the KGB chronicles the thirteen years he spent living behind the Iron Curtain. Just a college student when he signed up for the Armenian Repatriation, Mooradian became a star basketball player in Soviet Armenia but was not spared from the horrors of living in the Soviet Union.

More than 50 UCI students, faculty and local community members gathered to hear Mooradian’s talk in the Humanities Gateway Building on the UCI campus. Past public lectures include presentations by Gregory Areshian, assistant director of the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology; and Ali Mousavi, assistant curator of ancient Iranian and near eastern art at LACMA.

Courses in Armenian history offered to undergraduate students continue in the upcoming winter quarter with Ancient Armenian History and in the spring of 2012 with Modern Armenian History.

Armenian History at the University of California, Irvine was established in December 2007 with the goal of providing classes in ancient and modern Armenian history to all interested students on a yearly basis. The first classes were held in the fall of 2008.

The mission of the Armenian Studies program is to provide intellectual and social space for any student with an interest in these areas of history, but also to provide a cultural framework for students who may be interested in learning more about their own heritage or those of their neighbors.

Led by Professor of History Touraj Daryaee and assisted by the volunteer efforts of Sylvie and Garo Tertzakian, the program in Armenian History is designed primarily for undergraduate students but includes annual community lectures to include a wider audience.