SCYP Scholarship Holders on the 36th National Scientific Students’ Associations Conference (OTDK)

Nine SCYP Scholarship Holders participated on the 36th OTDK from which one scholarship holder was awarded with 1st place, one with 3rd place and two of them with special prizes.

What is the National Scientific Students’ Associations Conference (OTDK)?

The OTDK is the country’s largest scientific event and a showcase for talented young creators. The conference has a history going back six decades. The conference is usually organised in 16 sections and is organised by the National Council of Scientific Students.

It is a major event for the higher education institutions hosting the sessions, with the active participation of thousands of students, consultants, referees, sponsors and interested parties. It demonstrates the continued demand for quality education among young people.

The aim of the conference is to encourage student scientific and artistic circles and to support talented students and their masters. Its goal is to help students to pursue their research careers, to start a career in science and the arts, and to apply for doctoral studies. It also aims to celebrate the work of talented students in higher education, to strengthen and support teacher-student relations, and to promote and recognise student academic activity nationwide.

The 36th OTDK was open to the most outstanding scientific and artistic works achieved by the best students in 2021-2023 and already qualified at institutional conferences.

The conference is organised every two years, so the next OTDK will take place in 2025. You can start preparing now!

SCYP Scholarship Holders participating in the OTDK :

Pázmány Péter Catholic University:

Arshakyan Tatevik (History MA): The Transformation of the Public Sphere from Soviet to Post-Soviet Armenia

Arustamyan Inessa (History MA): The Colloquial Language of the Transylvanian Armenians (18th -19th century)

Avetisyan Lala (History MA): Freud in Armenia: The Reception of Psychoanalysis in Soviet and Post-Soviet Armenia

Chilingaryan Gagik (History MA): Norms of the Council of Europe in the Postsoviet space: National Minorities in the Republic of Armenia and FCNM

Khachatryan Hripsime (History MA): Far from the Black: Investigations into the Armeno-Kipchaks and Black Sea Connectivity

Manasyan Marianna (History MA): Images and Perceptions of Armenia in Diaspora Armenian Films

Saghatelyan Lilit (History MA): Historical Citizenship in the Soviet Border Region: Armenians of Nakhijevan

Tsatryan Mila (History MA): Networks of the Armenian Diaspora: The National and International Connections of the Armenian Catholic Ordianriate in Romania

University of Pécs:

Luka Bitrus Ijiptil (Physiotherapy MA): Evaluation of the quality of life and health related status in people with knee osteoarthritis in Hungary

Thank you to Anna Galstyan for her contribution in the interviews!

The winners

Luka Bitrus Ijiptil

(University of Pécs, Physiotherapy MA, 1st year)

Topic: Evaluation of the Quality of Life and Health Related Status in People with Knee Osteoarthritis in Hungary Prize: 1st place under the primary prevention section Section: Medical and Health Sciences Section (Orvos- és Egészségtudományi szekció) Place: Semmelweis University Date: 18-21 April, 2023

“Presenting in front of prestigious scholars was a great opportunity which was scary and exciting at the same time. Every time I think about it, it encourages me that everything is achievable with patience and hard work. The event was not only academically enriching, but it was also a fantastic opportunity to connect with like-minded students and researchers from different, countries, universities and healthcare discipline.”

Interview with Luka Bitrus Ijiptil bellow.

Lilit Saghatelyan

(Pázmány Péter Catholic University, History MA, 2nd year)

Topic: Historical Citizenship on the Soviet Border Region: Armenians of Nakhijevan Prize: 3rd place in section “History after 1945 (1945 utáni egyetemes történelem)” Section: Humanities Section (Humán Tudományi szekció) Place: Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church Date: 12-14 April, 2023

“It was honour for me to raise the voice of small and forgotten region Nakhijevan in front of Hungarian scientific student conference.”

Interview with Lilit Saghatelyan bellow.

Inessa Arustamyan

(Pázmány Péter Catholic University, History MA, 2nd year)

Topic: The Colloquial Language of the Transylvanian Armenians (18th -19th century) Prize: Special award given by Dr. Ákos Issekutz, president of EÖGYKE Transylvanian Armenian Cultural Organisation Section: Humanities Section (Humán Tudományi szekció) Place: Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church Date: 12-14 April, 2023

“I was very motivated and just took the chance to discover something important for myself and to take a small and smart step toward scholarly life.”

Interview with Inessa Arustamyan bellow.

Marianna Manasyan

(Pázmány Péter Catholic University, History MA, 2nd year)

Topic: Images/Perceptions of Armenia in Diaspora Armenian Films Prize: Special prize Section: Humanities Section (Humán Tudományi szekció) Place: Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church Date: 12-14 April, 2023

“I was curious about the other fields and methods the voice of Armenian diaspora stands in the world. I was brought up in homeland (Armenia) and it was fascinating to view how Armenians abroad turn to Armenia and what their feelings are towards Armenia.”

Interview with Marianna Manasyan bellow.

Congratulations to all SCYP Scholarship Holders to participating on the 36th National Scientific Students’ Associations Conference (OTDK)! Thank you for sharing your stories with us!

The Scholarship Programme for Christian Young People Team is always proud of our students’ success.

Because your success is our success too!

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Interviews

Interview with Luka Bitrus Ijiptil

Why did you choose this topic?I was inspired to make my research on this topic because, the knee osteoarthritis is degenerative musculoskeletal disorder that is prevalent with ageing and it has no permanent cure yet. And with increase in life expectancy perceived in the future, not only is knee osteoarthritis the problem/burden of the patients alone, but it will also have a major burden on the healthcare system and the whole world financial system. Therefore, the aim was to investigate the quality of life of knee osteoarthritic patients with the purpose of contributing to the scientific literatures about it impact.What was it like to give a presentation, to attend the conference, to listen to other people’s presentations? What new experiences did you gain?Presenting in front of prestigious scholars was a great opportunity which was scary and exciting at the same time. Every time I think about it, it encourages me that everything is achievable with patience and hard work. The event was not only academically enriching, but it was also a fantastic opportunity to connect with like-minded students and researchers from different, countries, universities and healthcare discipline. This gave us the opportunity for networking, discussions and encouragements about potential researches and collaborations.Why did you decide to participate in the OTDK?I decided to participate because I wanted to share my work with the world, to encourage and learn from others.Do you have any further goals for this topic? Do you want to do further research on this topic, use it in your profession?Yes, this part is so exciting for me to talk about because, in this present research we found that females have poorer quality of life compared to the male patients with knee osteoarthritis, with a huge gap. This was the inspiration behind my ongoing research, to investigate why. And the title is “Gender difference of muscle activation amongst patients with knee osteoarthritis”.Would you recommend others to attend the conference? If yes, why?Yes, because it is a great opportunity to explore, share, learn and be encourage on how to contribute to saving or making the future better through your work.

Interview with Lilit Saghatelyan

Why did you choose this topic?Well, as I developed the notion “historical citizenship”, I decided to apply it the Soviet context. I feel that there is a gap in Soviet Studies concerning peripheral regions of Soviet Union. Nowadays they play an important role in the daily life and politics of South Caucasus, thus they are worth of discussing. I consider Nakhijevan a typical example of creating historical identity alongside territorial ideologies. And before me, no one carried out such kind of research about this forgotten and small region. So I decided to raise the voice of those Armenians who consider Nakhijevan their historical homeland.How difficult was the process of conducting interviews with the Nakhichevan Armenians?To tell the truth, I faced some difficulties while conducting Oral History Interviews. Regarding the fact that these Armenians left their homes more than about fifty years ago and they were spread to different parts of world mainly settling in Russia, so I could hardly find connections with Nakhijevani Armenians. In this regard, I am thankful to my supervisor Balint Kovacs who introduced me to Hakob Matevosyan, who showed his willingness to help me, he is sociologist and he taught me the methodology for carrying out the interviews, and having Nakhijevani roots himself, I was able to find personal connections. Moreover, I found a group chat in the social media, and to my surprise, a lot of Nakhijevani Armenians were eager to give interviews. But the scope was limited, and it included middle aged group, as older people refused to give interview, for some it was hard to speak about their past as it caused emotional feelings. I conducted my interviews in the Republic of Armenia in the summer of 2022.What was it like to give a presentation, to attend the conference, to listen to other people’s presentations? What new experiences did you gain?OTDK gave a lot of new experience to me. It was the first time that I participated in such a scientific student conference. It was a new challenge to present my topic in front of Hungarian audience, since my topic dealt with particular issues concerning Armenian community in Nakhijevan. I was a little bit tensed at the beginning but thanks to my supervisor’s invaluable guidance I could present it in a proper manner.Why did you decide to participate in the OTDK?I was motivated to participate in the OTDK by my supervisor. Besides, it was honour for me to raise the voice of small and forgotten region Nakhijevan in front of Hungarian scientific student conference. I wanted to develop my presentation and academic skills which further would be helpful for carrying out larger research work.Do you have any further goals for this topic? Do you want to do further research on this topic, use it in your profession?Hopefully soon, this work using historical citizenship knowledge will be taken into further consideration as part of a larger research work and will be applicable to other peripheral areas of the Soviet Union. Good ground for social studies theory investigations, as in my research, citizenship and state membership have social implications. I am going to extend the scope of my Oral history interviews, including the new generation as well, and analyse how diasporic representation about homeland change from one generation to another.Would you recommend others to attend the conference? If yes, why?I highly recommend all students not to lose the chance to participate in OTDK. It is a great opportunity to present your own research topic in an academic level and engage in insightful discussions with others, because presenting your research in front of an audience can help you receive feedback and suggestions that can improve your work. It will also develop presentation skills, which can be valuable for the future academic and professional endeavours. Overall, it is a valuable experience for any student who is interested in science, research, or academia. It can provide opportunities to learn, network, and develop professionally, while also providing motivation and inspiration for future academic and professional pursuits.

Interview with Inessa Arustamyan

Why did you choose this topic?Since my specialty was Armenian language and literature, it was quite clear to me if there was a chance to do linguistics again, so why not? That chance was given to me by my supervisor Balint Kovacs, and I was sure that yes, I want to work on this topic. At first sight, I was very curious and interested to know more about this region, where and how the Armenians came from in Transylvania, and having a linguistic background, of course, I was very interested to go deeper into this subject, to do research that I had never done before, and to reveal something important to me and to those who are interested in it too.What kind of methodology did you use to conduct the research?First and foremost, I needed to work with the Transylvanian archives. Thanks to Professor Balint Kovacs and Professor Karen Jallatian, I conducted my first research work in Transylvania. We had a very productive one-week research project in the Armenian Catholic Collective Archive of Armenopolis (ACCA) (SZÖKGYL Szamosújvár), Arhivele Nationale (Cluj Napoca/Kolozsvár), Biblioteca Centrală Universitară „Lucian Blaga”. In every archive, we have found several documents, letters, and vocabulary written in Armenian by famous Transylvanian-Armenians by that time. So the first step was archival research in Transylvania, selecting the sources for historical dialectological research. Then was one of the most interesting and difficult part of this research work; transliteration with Armenian letters (Heinrich/Hübschmann system for linguistical research), developing the textual corpus, and structuring the texts with English language short regests. These were our main methods of working.What was it like to give a presentation, to attend the conference, to listen to other people’s presentations? What new experiences did you gain?I had a little experience participating in similar conferences in my home country before, but this was my first experience participating in a huge conference at international level, where I had the opportunity to present my department (Department of Armenian Studies/PPCU) and my work, which I did with great pleasure. Another thing is that I was the only Armenian/international student in my section, so I also had the opportunity to listen to presentations by Hungarian students, and in a way, it was a chance to try my knowledge of the Hungarian language.Why did you decide to participate in the OTDK?First of all, this topic was considered as the topic of my master’s thesis, so I did archival research in Transylvania to develop my topic, and then thanks to my supervisor Bálint Kovács it became clear that OTDK would take place this year and we should try it. So I was very motivated and just took the chance to discover something important for myself and to take a small and smart step toward scholarly life.Do you have any further goals for this topic? Do you want to do further research on this topic, use it in your profession?Of course, I am planning to do more research on this topic because I want to continue my PhD in the frames of this work, directly related to the Transylvanian Armenians.Would you recommend others to attend the conference? If yes, why?I would definitely recommend participation in this conference to anyone who has a great desire to deepen their knowledge and undertake serious research work.

Interview with Marianna Manasyan

Why did you choose this topic?My motivation for the choice of the topic became the university courses on Armenian Diaspora and Diasporic Literature held by Professor Karen Jallatyan. As we got acquainted with the Armenian diaspora and analyzed Armenian diasporic literature, I was curious about the other fields and methods the voice of Armenian diaspora stands in the world. I was brought up in homeland (Armenia) and it was fascinating to view how Armenians abroad turn to Armenia and what their feelings are towards Armenia. First of all, watching films is one of my favorite activities which helped me to devote myself to this research with eagerness. In addition, it seemed to me that the Armenian diasporic cinema has long been a circle rarely touched and precisely analyzed.What do you think? How relevant this topic is nowadays?The process of studying the field itself became inspiring and many hidden elements of the Armenian diaspora came to the surface. Watching the films revealed the problems and lack of categorizations in diaspora Armenian cinema. It was interesting to learn about national films and cultures by exploring films that depict the national experience from a diasporic perspective. The research shows that there can be no singular identical Armenian culture and cinema. Armenian culture is a mixture including elements originated by Armenians with quite distinct experiences. The experience of Armenians outside of Armenia makes ground for multiculturalism and global culture. Thus, this research views and includes diaspora Armenian cinema together with national Armenian cinema into global culture and cinema.What kind of approach did you give to the topic? More cinematographic or historical?The uniqueness of the topic comes from the fact that it encompasses both cinematographic and historical fieldwork. On the one hand, it focuses on the visual culture, the films themselves being the primary sources, on the other hand, it turns to the historical field as the point most of the films include is the Armenian genocide. It also deals with the history of national and diasporic cinemas in general, paralleling and making the Armenian cinematographic experience part of the global acknowledgment of cinemas.What was it like to give a presentation, to attend the conference, to listen to other people’s presentations? What new experiences did you gainGiving a presentation at the conference was very exciting as it was my first experience of presenting anything before so many foreigners. It was a great experience and has motivated eagerness for future ones. Listening to other presentations was also nice. I could adopt some presenting and organizing skills from the other participants. The written reviews from the OTDK were encouraging and promising. The Armenian Department and I were doing our best for presenting the topic in the final conference properly. This project could not have been successful without all these efforts.Why did you decide to participate in the OTDK?The dean of the Armenian Studies Department informed me about the privileges of participating in the OTDK. Also, I wanted to be part of the conference, have a competition with Hungarian students, and make a step to include Armenian studies in the country’s (Hungary) interests.Do you have any further goals for this topic? Do you want to do further research on this topic, use it in your profession?I want to develop and extend my topic. Also, I am looking for other conferences to present it. I am planning to do Ph.D. on this topic and include a comparative aspect with another cinema. In addition, I am going to add the field of Translation studies to it and put the research on a more international platform.Would you recommend others to attend the conference? If yes, why?I will definitely encourage others to participate as it is quite an interesting process. It provides more skills and makes one more professional in his/her writing and presenting.

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