Former deputy foreign minister and negotiator for Armenia Gerard J. Libaridian will present a talk entitled From Historian to Incidental Diplomat: The Writing of History Before and After Participating in its Making drawing extensively on his own experience and revelations as a diplomat for Armenia and as a historian of Armenian foreign policy.

Gerard J. Libaridian is the director of the Armenian Studies Program and the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Formerly, Libaridian was an advisor to the president of Armenia from 1991 to September 1997. During that period he served as senior advisor for foreign policy and security issues (1994–97), as the first deputy minister of foreign affairs (1993–94), negotiator for the Nagorno-Karbakh conflict, and coordinator of conflict-related policy in the Office of the President. Libaridian has taught previously at a number of universities, and has lectured and published extensively. His numerous publications include Modern Armenia: People, Nation, State; Dilemmas and Dangers of Foreign Policy in the Caucasus; The Role of Organization, Institutions, and Centers in Armenian Studies; The Challenge of Statehood: Armenian Political Thinking since Independence; and Armenia at the Crossroads: Democracy and Nationhood in the Post-Soviet Era. Libaridian holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles.