The USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies announced Professor Khachig Tölölyan, one of the founding architects of modern Diaspora studies, as its second Seminal Scholar-in-Residence. Throughout a career spanning five decades, Tölölyan transformed “diaspora” from a term associated primarily with a small number of historically dispersed peoples into a major interdisciplinary field of inquiry. His scholarship helped establish the conceptual vocabulary through which generations of scholars have examined dispersion, transnationalism, statelessness, migration, homeland relations, and belonging. Tölölyan was the founding editor of “Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies” in 1991, which he edited for nearly three decades. The first academic journal devoted to the comparative study of diasporas, “Diaspora” created an intellectual forum for a field that was itself still taking shape; its inaugural issue received the Council of Editors of Learned Journals award for Best New Journal. Tölölyan’s own landmark interventions—including “The Nation-State and its Others” and “Rethinking Diaspora(s): Stateless Power in the Transnational Moment”— challenged nation-state-centered approaches to identity and political belonging and shaped the theoretical foundations of diaspora and transnational studies. Professor Emeritus at Wesleyan University, Tölölyan taught literature, comparative literature, and critical and cultural theory for nearly five decades. His intellectual range extends from diaspora, nationalism, and globalization to narrative theory and world literature. He has lectured internationally on the development and future of Diaspora studies, including delivering the inaugural lecture for Oxford University’s Diasporas Programme in 2011, “Diaspora Studies: Past, Present, and Promise,” later reprinted in the “Routledge Handbook of Diaspora Studies.” The Armenian experience has been both a sustained subject of Tölölyan’s scholarship and a generative site for his broader theoretical work. Across decades of writing, he has examined Armenian diasporic institutions, political agency, transnational networks, homeland-Diaspora relations, and the changing meanings of Armenian identity. Alongside his English-language scholarship, he has written hundreds of essays and columns in Armenian, making him a formidable presence in Armenian intellectual and public life. “His work demonstrates what Armenian Studies can do at its most ambitious: begin with the specificity and complexity of the Armenian experience and produce ideas that transform how we understand the world,” said Dr. Shushan Karapetian, Director of the USC Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies. “It is a tremendous privilege to bring a scholar of his stature to USC and to give our students, colleagues, and wider community sustained access to his thinking.” During his residency, Tölölyan will offer public lectures, workshops, conversations, and student mentorship. His two public lectures—“Diasporic Futures: Thinking Nationally, Living Transnationally,” in English, and “Ազգ, Անդրազգ, Սփիւռքազգ,” in Armenian—will draw on decades of thinking about the changing meanings of nation, diaspora, and transnational belonging. The residency will also bring Tölölyan into conversation with Drs. Talar Chahinian and Sossie Kasbarian, two of the three current co-editors of “Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies.” They will lead a workshop with scholars and join Tölölyan for the public conversation “Living Diaspora, Thinking Diaspora.” The conversation will explore how Tölölyan’s own diasporic trajectory has intersected with and informed his intellectual work and the development of diaspora studies. Tölölyan will also lead a workshop for USC students, record an episode of the Institute’s “Language Therapy with Dr. K” podcast, and hold office hours. “I eagerly anticipate contributing to the discussions and productive disputes that animate Diaspora studies, especially in Los Angeles: a multicultural hub and the indisputable capital of the Armenian Diaspora,” Tölölyan said. Tölölyan follows Dr. Hrach Martirosyan, the internationally recognized historical-comparative linguist who served as the Institute’s inaugural Seminal Scholar-in-Residence in 2025. Martirosyan’s residency featured public lectures in Armenian and English, specialized workshops, student mentorship, and an Armenian-language seasonof the Institute’s flagship podcast, “Language Therapy with Dr. K.” Together, the first two residencies establish the ambition of the “Seminal Scholars Residency:” to invite scholars to USC whose work has not simply contributed to Armenian Studies, but has changed the terms through which their subjects are understood. From the history and evolution of the Armenian language to the emergence of diaspora as a major field of interdisciplinary inquiry, the program positions Armenian Studies as a site that produces consequential questions of global significance. Tuesday, October 13 at 6:30 p.m.: public lecture in English, “Diasporic Futures: Thinking Nationally, Living Transnationally.” Free and open to the public. RSVP to attend. Tuesday, October 20 at 6:30 p.m.: public lecture in Armenian, “Ազգ, Անդրազգ, Սփիւռքազգ.” Free and open to the public. RSVP to attend. Friday, October 30 at 12 to 3 p.m., Workshop with Local Scholars in Armenian (Diaspora) Studies. Invitation only, Tuesday, November 3 at 7 p.m.: Public Conversation, “Living Diaspora, Thinking Diaspora: Khachig Tölölyan in Conversation with Talar Chahinian and Sossie Kasbarian.” Free and open to the public. RSVP to attend. Friday, November 6 at 12 to 3 p.m.: Workshop with USC Undergraduate Students. Application Only. Click here to apply. Office Hours will be held by appointment on: Location: DMC 351. Click here to schedule a session. For additional details about the schedule of events, visit the USC Armenian Studies website.