Elyse Semerdjian, professor of history at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, has received the 2025 Lemkin Book Award from the Institute for the Study of Genocide for her recent book, Remnants: Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide (Stanford University Press, 2023). The biennial award recognzies the best non-fiction book published in English or translated into English that focuses on the causes, prevention, response, or consequences of genocide and mass atrocities.
In her award-winning monograph, Dr. Semerdjian offers a feminist reading of the Armenian Genocide. Last year, the book received the 2024 Best Book Prize from the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies.
At Clark University, Dr. Semerdjian currently serves as the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Throughout her career, she has conducted extensive research on the history of the Ottoman Empire. In addition to Remnants, she is the author of “Off the Straight Path”: Illicit Sex, Law, and Community in Ottoman Aleppo (Syracuse University Press, 2008).
Dr. Semerdjian holds a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.