James R. Russell

James R. Russell
Born James Robert Russell
October 1953 (age 63–64)
New York City
Residence Fresno, California [1]
Nationality USA
Alma mater Columbia University (B.A., 1974)
University of Oxford (M.A., 1977)
University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (Ph.D., 1982)
Occupation professor at Harvard University, author, scholar
Known for Armenian and Ancient Near Eastern scholar
Parent(s) Charlotte (Sananes) Russell
Joseph Brooke Russell

James Robert Russell (born in October, 1953, New York City) is a scholar and professor in Ancient Near Eastern, Iranian and Armenian Studies. He has published extensively in journals, and has written several books.

He is the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, and sits on the executive committee of Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.[2]

In July, 2016, Russell became semi-retired and moved his residence to Fresno, California.[1]

Early life and education

Russell was born in New York City and grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. He was educated at The Bronx High School of Science in New York City, Columbia University [B.A. summa cum laude 1974], and the University of Oxford [B.Litt. 1977], under the noted Armenologists Nina Garsoïan and Charles Dowsett. He attended Oxford as the recipient of a Kellett Fellowship awarded on graduation from Columbia.

He earned his Ph.D. at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), under the direction of Dr. Mary Boyce. His 1982 Ph.D. thesis was on the topic of "Zoroastrianism in Armenia" and later published by Harvard University Press.

Professional

After finishing his Ph.D., he soon after taught at Columbia University, in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies. He then went on to be a Lady Davis Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Soon after he was on the short-list for the Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department at Harvard University, for which he was chosen and has occupied the chair since 1993. He also teaches a wide range of subjects, including Freshman seminars on literature and comparative religions, literature and cultures.[3] Dr. Russell serves on the executive committees of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. He has taught and lectured in Armenia, India, and Iran and at the Oriental Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Saint Petersburg State University. He was Government Fellowship Lecturer at the Cama Institute in Bombay, India.[4]

Russell has been called, "A complex figure... (who) resists easy classification and is no stranger to controversy: reviled by Turks and Armenians alike." [5]

He has been interviewed as an expert and scholar on The History Channel's documentary programs including Angels: Good or Evil.[6]

Russell has been one of the three faculty advisers for the conservative fortnightly The Harvard Salient.

He lectured on Soteriology on the Silk Road for the Buddhist Lecture Series of the University of Toronto in October 2005, and organized and chaired an international symposium in the same month to commemorate the 1600th anniversary of Saint Mesrop Mashtots, inventor of the Armenian alphabet. He has written on, translated, and analyzed the esoteric, mystical, and spiritual aspects of the writings of Gregory of Narek, and has written numerous articles for the Encyclopædia Iranica. He contributed to the New Leader magazine.

Ninety one of his selected published scholarly journal articles, are gathered in his book, Armenian and Iranian Studies.

Critics

Russell's writings were criticised by Armenian historians Armen Ayvazyan [7] and Armen Petrosyan, who conclude that Russell is making gross factual mistakes together with unsubstantiated and tendentious claims on Armenian history and culture. Ayvazyan considers Russell, along with a number of other leading American armenologists, to be one of the representatives of the "false Western school of Armenian studies".[8] Bert Vaux, an Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Harvard University, claims that Russell's "chair [of Armenian Studies] is actually hurting the [Armenian] community at this point. When you call the Armenians neo-Nazis, that isn't helping the community and it's not leaving it alone-it's hurting it. You are providing fodder for people that want to attack the Armenians." [9]

In his speech at the conference "Rethinking Armenian Studies: Past, Present, and Future" on October 4, 2002 at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, Russell cautioned the audience against the "conspiracy theories, xenophobia, and ultra-nationalist pseudo-science [which] have come increasingly into the mainstream of Armenology in the Armenian Republic" and which have found sympathetic outlets in some of the diasporic press, where paranoia and anti-Semitism have been notably present. "It is a task of the community to set its house in order because these trends are in the end suicidal," he warned. Although Prof. Russell declines to debate such issues, he stated that "I will help with my pen what I still believe to be the great majority of Armenians to expose and destroy the sort of people who are not only dragging our field, but possibly the community itself into dangerous territory".[10]

Personal life

Professor Russell is the son of Dr. Charlotte Sananes Russell,[11] a Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the City College of New York, and Joseph Brooke Russell, an attorney and arbitrator in New York.[12] His grandfather, Sidney A. Russell, was a founder and president of Russell & Russell, publisher of out-of-print scholarly books.[13]

Partial Russell Bibliography

Books

Scholarly articles

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Lecture Announcement: James R. Russell: And the Book Was Not Consumed: The Forty Days of Musa Dagh and the Nazi Holocaust", Berkeley Events, University of California, Berkeley, October 27, 2016
  2. ↑ Executive Committee, Davis Center
  3. ↑ Kavulla, Travis, "A Small Niche for Great Books: An Armenian Studies professor’s lonely accomplishment in general education", Harvard Crimson, Friday, January 20, 2006
  4. ↑ Professor James R. Russell's page at Harvard University
  5. ↑ Sanders, Gabriel, "Reluctantly Thrust Into Spotlight, Armenia Scholar Becomes Equal Opportunity Offender", The Forward, October 10, 2007
  6. ↑ "Angels: Good or Evil", The History Channel, TV documentary, originally aired May 10, 2003. Angels: Good or Evil on IMDb
  7. ↑ The History of Armenia as Presented in American Historiography (A Critical Survey), Yerevan 1998
  8. ↑ The History of Armenia as Presented in American Historiography (A Critical Survey), Yerevan 1998
  9. ↑ Vaux also makes the claim that Russell's "training is actually in Iranian Studies", although Russell (who taught modern and ancient Armenian as well as Armenian history at Columbia before arriving at Harvard, and most of whose scholarly work has been on Armenian language, culture, and history) does have both an undergraduate degree in Armenian studies and a Ph.D. on the subject of Zorastrianism in Armenia. "The Armenian Language and Armenian Studies: An Interview with Linguistics Professor Bert Vaux", interview by Jason Sohigian, The Armenian Weekly Online September–October 2003.
  10. ↑ Major Conference on Armenian Studies Held at Harvard and NAASR Center. The Armenian Reporter, January 4, 2003
  11. ↑ Faculty Page: Professor Charlotte S. Russell - Chemistry Department, City College of New York.
  12. ↑ "Profile for Joseph Russell", Alumni Association of Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, New York. "Graduated in Jan. '43, age 15, worked in factories and on farm to 17, Naval Aviation '44-'46, BA '50, JD '52 Columbia; Law practice to retirement in '88 from CBS Law Dept. Married 12/47 to Charlotte Sananes, New Utrecht HS grad. Jan. '43, BA summa cum laude Brooklyn Coll. '46, MA '47, PhD '51, Columbia, now professor emerita, CCNY. ... Retired lawyer/judge, part-time Hearing Examiner for NYC Health Dept."
  13. ↑ "Genealogy: Sidney A. Russell". geni.com
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