Department of Social Sciences

Head of the Department: Vahan Melikyan, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Leading Researcher at the Institute of History of NAS RA.

Former Department of History had been reconstructed for several times. In 1939 it was established as a Department of Marxism-Leninism Basics. In 1957 it was renamed Department of History of the Communist Party of the USSR, during 1989-1990- Department of Political History of 20th century, during 1991-1994-Department of  Political History of Armenian Nation in 19-20th centuries. Since 2006 it was renamed Department of History.

The Department was headed by T. Aleksanyan (1939-1941), G. Shaghgamyan (1942-1944), A. H. Melkonyan (1944-1947), A. Baghmanyan (1947-1984), H. Melikyan (1984-1994), F. Karapetyan (1994-2004), A. Melkonyan (2004-2006), A. Ghambaryan (2006-2013), V. Melikyan (since 2013).

In 1994 the Department of Social studies was established on the basis of independent operating Department of Political History of Armenian Nation in 19-20th centuries, Department of theory of Economics, Theory of politics and Socialism, Department of Philosophy.

The Department was fundamentally changed in September 1989, when Professor H. Melikyan started teaching of “Basics of history of Armenian nation” at non professional universities in Armenia.

Department of Philosophy was established in 1957. The Department was headed by M. Kocharyan (1957-1959), T. Aleksanyan (1959-1976), V. Darbinyan (1976-1987), R. Jijyan (1987-1994), Departmented Department of Social Sciences was headed by F. Karapetyan (1994-2004), S. Davtyan (2006-2007 Depratment of Social Sciences, 2007-01.12.2009- Department of Philosophy and Bioethics), R. Tigranyan (2009-2013).

The discipline of “History of Medicine” (Faculty of Pharmacy- “History of Pharmacy) has been taught since 1946 at the Department of Social medicine and organization of Health care. Since 1988 the discipline was included in educational plan of Forensic Medicine and since 2008 it was included in the educational plan of Department of history. Since 2013 it has been taught in the Department of Social Studies.

Since 2000 Bioethics has been taught in the Department.

The Armenian Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Hayfa) is situated in Yerevan State Medical University.

The following subjects are taught at the Department in the following format:

The scope of scientific research and interests of the employees of the Department of Social Sciences covers the most important problems and concepts of the relevant disciplines, providing a wide spectrum of field studies.

• Within the course “History of Armenian People” the field of scientific research of the chair’s staff includes political Armenian studies and Armenian history of the beginning of the 20th century, particularly 1912-1921. period: 1917 Russian revolutions, parties, the Armenian question, the political and civil history of Transcaucasia and Armenia, the emergence of independent republics and other issues.
• The range of interests of employees who is teaching the subject of “History of Medicine” includes the question of the relevance of ancient Armenian medical and pharmaceutical books, the greatest discoveries related to medicine of the Antiquity and Renaissance periods, the medical practices of Eastern countries, the methods of Vedic and traditional Chinese medicine.
• Specialists of the “Philosophy” course have done many studies on methodological issues of clinical thinking, medical cognition, the principle of determinism in medicine, human health as a philosophical issue, as well as philosophy of life, modernism and postmodernism, social and political philosophy.
• Methodology and perspectives of teaching of Bioethics; Human communication, curing by words, curing by melody, “Narek” as a remedy; Euthanasia, Palliative care in Armenia.

The Department is associated with

• The Institute of History of NAS RA
• Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University,
• Matenadaran after M. Mashtots
• Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, Sociology of Yerevan State University.

PhD, Professor VH Melikyan cooperates with the relevant faculties of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Pyatigorsk State Universities and with the Armenological Centers of Paris, Beirut, Cyprus within the framework of “Armenian History”, Armenology, International Relations.

Within the framework of Bioethics S.H. Davtyan cooperates with the Bioethics Departments of Medical Universities in Moscow, Volgograd, Minsk, Haifa, Sofia, Macedonia, China, India, Austria, Australia and other countries.

Within the framework of the History of Medicine, the Chair cooperates with Aistis Zalnor, a lecturer in the history of medicine at the Vilnius University.

“History of Armenia”

Vahan Melikyan                         Head of the Department, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor

Armenuhi Ghambaryan              PhD in History, Assistant Professor Senior Lecturer

Teteyan Arshaluys                      PhD in History, Assistant Professor Senior Lecturer

Tsermakyan Askanaz                  Lecturer

Hovhannisyan Nune                   Assistant

Invited Lecturers

Gegham Hovhannisyan               PhD in History, Assistant Professor

Shushan Yeritsyan                     Lecturer

«History of Medicine»

Aslanyan Armine                        Lecturer

Teteyan Anzhela                         Lecturer

«Philosophy»

Tigranyan Razmik                      PhD., Senior Lecturer

Kchanyan Mkrtich                      PhD, Assistant Professor Senior Lecturer

Nemishalyan Roza                      PHD, Lecturer

Mesropyan Milena                      Lecturer

Sahakyan Hayarpi                      Lecturer

Chobanyn Luiza                         Assistant

«Bioethics»

Davtyan Susanna                       PhD, Professor

Pirumyan Tatevik                       PhD, Senior Lecturer

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Address:  RA, Yerevan, 0025, YSMU, Department of Social Studies

Tel:  (+37460) 62 13 46, (+37460) 62 13 47, (+37460) 62 13 16

E-mail: socialscences1@gmail.com