Daniel Ohanian

Biography

Daniel Ohanian holds a PhD in Armenian and Middle Eastern history from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also holds a BA and MAs from York University in Toronto and Istanbul Bilgi University in Turkey. His research focuses on Armenians in the Ottoman Empire from 1660 onward. Daniel is a specialist in reading handwritten Armenian, Classical Armenian, and Ottoman Turkish.

Daniel volunteers as director of research for the Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education in Toronto. His latest project for the Corning Centre is the republication of a newsletter created by genocide orphans in the 1920s. He also helps curate programs and exhibits that bring history alive for the public.

Publications

  • With Z. Mehmet Başkurt and M. Erdem Kabadayı. “An Historical Geographic Information System for Ottoman Studies: The c. 1907 Ottoman Census and Armenian Settlement in Istanbul.” Turcica. Revue d’études turques—peuples, langues, cultures, États 51: 255–283.
  • “Sympathy and Exclusion: The Migration of Child and Women Survivors of the Armenian Genocide from the Eastern Mediterranean to Canada, 1923–1930.” Genocide Studies International 11, no. 2 (2017): 197–215.
  • “Collaboration in Ottoman Governance: The c. 1907 Imperial Census and the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate of Istanbul.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 4, no. 2: 365–380.

Reflections on the GHRUP

The GHRUP played an immense role in my personal and professional development. It was in this program that I saw that genocide, a topic that I’d learned and cared about within my native community of Armenians in Toronto, could be studied critically and rigorously. I found a sense of intellectual community in the GHRUP I never thought was possible. 

From this discovery, I published an article that in the Zoryan’s Genocide Studies International journal and the decision to pursue an MA in Ottoman-Armenian history in Turkey. Looking back on my ten years as a GHRUP alumnus, I would recommend the program highly!