AUA Press Republishes Hannah Arendt

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The American University of Armenia (AUA) Press is pleased to announce the publication of a revised edition of Hannah Arendt’s We Refugees. The volume, which includes eight critical texts by the German-American political philosopher in Armenian translation, was first published in 2016. The demand for this book was so high that all copies were distributed within the first year of publication. In response to numerous requests from both academic and nonacademic readers across Armenia, AUA Press made a tremendous effort to revive the volume in print. 

According to the Director of AUA Press Shushan Avagyan, “With this publication, we have introduced to the Armenian readership the writings of Hannah Arendt, one of the most influential political thinkers of the twentieth century. Strangely, not a single work by Arendt was available in Armenian before this book.”

By the end of this year, the AUA Press will put out another book by Arendt in Armenian translation, The Origins of Totalitarianism, as a part of the Calouste Gulbenkian Translation Series. The Armenian Communities Department of the Gulbenkian Foundation launched its Translation Series in 2015, aiming to make available in Armenian seminal texts in the humanities and the social sciences. Originally published in 1951, The Origins of Totalitarianism is one of Arendt’s major works in which she analyzes Nazism and Stalinism as the most radical totalitarian political movements of the first half of the 20th century. “The terrain of analysis of the Stalinist regime and its effects on our present-day culture would have expanded tremendously had we read this book earlier. Its translation into Armenian was probably banned during the Soviet years, if there ever was such an attempt, however it is astonishing that it wasn’t one of the first books to be translated immediately after Armenia gained independence (the Russian version first appeared in 1996). Its intimate gaze into the lives of people under a totalitarian system is incredibly revelatory and germane to understanding our past, and of course, our present,” explains Avagyan.

Copies of We Refugees are available free of charge upon request to Shushan Avagyan ([email protected]).

The AUA Press is committed to publishing works in areas that have not been covered by other publishing houses in Armenia, such as critical theory studies, diaspora studies, environmental studies, translation studies, and women’s and gender studies.

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.