The Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is launching a translation series, which aims to make seminal texts in the humanities and the social sciences available in Armenian, as well as to make significant Armenian texts accessible in other languages.

The “Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series” will focus on texts from the late 19^th century to the contemporary period. It will cover four areas of translations:

• Foreign Languages into Armenian, the focus will be on translating canonical social science/humanities texts which have not been translated into Armenian, primarily from European languages. A wide range of fields will be considered based on their (inter)disciplinary impact.
• Armenian into Foreign Languages, the focus will be on translating texts from current significant debates within the Armenian world, once again primarily into European languages.
• Turkish into Armenian, the focus will be on translating a selection of contemporary Turkish social and political thought, preferably in the form of edited anthologies.
• Armenian into Turkish, the same approach as above will be employed, providing translations of major debates within Armenia and the diaspora.

The translations may be in Eastern or Western Armenian, depending on the availability of translators. Through this initiative we aim to make texts available to scholars and students principally in Armenia, with the aim of facilitating the advancement of intellectual discourse.

This initiative will also contribute to the modernisation of the Armenian language, incorporating into it new vocabulary, and increase the pool of translators into and out of Armenian. We will develop and disseminate tools and resources, as well as consider supporting training schemes for translators.

An internationally based committee of experts has been established to recommend the texts for translation. The committee members are:

• Shushan Avagyan – Literary translator and lecturer, Translation Certificate Program, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, American University of Armenia.
• Vardan Azatyan – Associate Professor, Yerevan State Academy of Fine Arts; Lecturer, Institute of Contemporary Art, Yerevan; President, The Ashot Johanissyan Research Institute in the Humanities, Armenia.
• Hagop Gulludjian – Lecturer in Armenian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, UCLA, USA.
• Smbat Hovhannisyan – Lecturer at the Chair of World History, Department of History, Yerevan State University, Armenia.
• Armine Ishkanian – Assistant Professor and Programme Director of the MSc in Social Policy and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
• Raymond Kévorkian – Directeur émérite de recherche, Institut Français de Géopolitique, Université Paris VIII, Saint-Denis.
• Ardashes Margosyan – Formerly of Aras Yayıncılık Publishing, Istanbul.
• Ara Sanjian – Associate Professor in Armenian and Middle Eastern History, Director of the Armenian Research Center, University of Michigan at Dearborn, USA.

The “Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series” will launch a dedicated webpage that will offer electronic versions of the translations (wherever possible), translations of new terminologies, discussions of translational issues, resources and opportunities for translators and publishers, as well as regular news about the development of the initiative.

The official launch of the “Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series” will be in February 2016, at that point we will announce the initial list of texts to be translated and published. In early 2016, we will also begin to select a pool of translators and publishers to collaborate with through a mixed process of tendering and direct commissioning.