Nanore Barsoumian was born in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. When she was three, militants kidnapped her father, Hagop Barsoumian—a Syrian-born Armenian-American history professor and political activist. She never saw him again. At thirteen, she moved to Montreal; at fourteen, to Boston. By the time she graduated high school, she had attended eight schools across six cities and four countries. She is fluent in English and Armenian and conversational in Arabic and French.
In 2023, she joined New York University’s Global Institute for Advanced Studies as a research fellow for the Armenian Genocide Denial Project, focusing on denial at the United Nations. Previously, she was editor of The Armenian Weekly (2014-2016), where she had also served as assistant editor (2010-2014) and staff writer (2009), reporting from the U.S., Armenia, Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, and Turkey. Her articles cover books, politics, and human rights, while her scholarly research focuses on genocide memorialization and denial.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and English and a master’s in conflict resolution. Her work on social identities in genocide commemorations in Turkey appears in After the Ottomans: Genocide`s Long Shadow and Armenian Resilience (London: I.B. Tauris, 2023).
She is currently working on her debut novel, which explores themes of belonging and self-invention. She lives with her husband, her dog, and the world’s prettiest tortoise.
Photograph © Aaron Spagnolo