Avet Vardanyan, M.A.
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About
Avet Vardanyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. From 2017 to 2021, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature at the Armenian State Pedagogical University. In 2020, he participated in an exchange programme at the University of Oulu, Finland, where he explored local educational institutions and their systems. He pursued a Master of Arts in History (Armenian Studies) at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary, from 2022 to 2024, where his thesis examined the transformation of the Armenian education system and reforms from the Soviet era to the present.
Since May 2025, Avet Vardanyan has been a doctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig and a scholarship holder of the Catholic Academic Exchange Service (KAAD). His current research focuses on environmental activism surrounding the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia during the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods.
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Work Focus
- Environmental activism and civic engagement in the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods
- Comparative analysis of anti-nuclear movements in Armenia and Eastern Europe
Current topic of research
Explorations of The Environmental History of Armenia (1960s–2010s)
Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, Armenia’s sole nuclear facility, sparked concerns over safety and environmental risks resulting in activism. This study explores this plant’s role in the context of wider post-Soviet environmental movements by comparing local efforts to other Eastern European anti-nuclear campaigns.
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