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AUTHOR: Levon Avdoyan

Levon Avdoyan earned his MA, MPhil and PhD in Ancient History with a Minor in Armenian History and Civilization from Columbia University. After spending a year as a fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies in Georgetown, he joined the Library of Congress in 1977, first serving in Decimal Classification, then Shared Cataloging, and the Copyright Office as a literary examiner. He became the reference specialist or Classics, Ancient, Byzantine and Medieval history in the Main Reading Room in 1982. He was appointed as the Library’s first Area Specialist for Armenia and Georgia in 1992. Avdoyan has lectured internationally and published widely on Armenian history. He also concentrated on Armenian Studies as it enters and expands in the information age. In 2012 he curated an exhibition in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the first printed Armenian book and wrote a catalog, To Know Wisdom and Instruction: A Visual Survey of the Armenian Literary Tradition from the Library of Congress. The English language catalog rapidly sold out but an Armenian translation was published in Yerevan in 2013 and an Apple iBook edition in September of 2015. In 2015 Avdoyan was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi Medal-Armenia’s highest cultural award- by His Excellency, Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia. After 41 years of service at the Library of Congress, he retired from his position as Area Specialist for Armenia and Georgia on January 3, 2019.

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