Simon Maghakyan

​Described as “relentless” by the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Simon Maghakyan is a political scientist who researches heritage and security. He is the 20th Kazan Visiting Professor in Armenian Studies at California State University, Fresno, a Community Scholar at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford. Previously, he was affiliated with Tufts University, the University of Colorado, Denver, and Cranfield University, where he earned a PhD in Defense and Security, focusing on heritage crime. His professional and community experiences range from founding the applied research firm Heritage Intel to spearheading Colorado’s capitol genocide memorial. His publications include a forensic Hyperallergic exposé of Nakhichevan’s cultural erasure, acclaimed as “groundbreaking” by Forbes and “rock-solid” by The Guardian. His investigative writing has been cited at the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice, and his analyses have been featured by the BBC, Le Monde, The Sunday Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Time. Dr. Maghakyan is the author of Sovereign Heritage Crime: Security, Autocracy, and the Material Past, a critical heritage studies theoretical element, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.