Varak Ketsemanian graduated from the American University of Beirut in 2013 with a BA in philosophy and minor in history. After interning at the Armenian Weekly offices in Boston, MA, Ketsemanian enrolled at the University of Chicago in the MA program at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (2014-2016). His MA thesis titled “Communities in Conflict: the Hunchakian Revolutionary Party 1890-1894” examines the socio-economic role of violence in shaping inter-communal and ethnic relations by doing a local history of the Armenian Revolutionary Movement in the Ottoman Empire. Ketsemanian is currently a PhD student at Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University planning on writing the social history of the Armenian National Constitution of 1863, and the communal dynamics that it created on imperial, communal, and provincial levels. Ketsemanian’s research relates to the development of different forms of nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, revolutionary violence, and constitutional movements. He has conducted research and has been involved in various projects in Turkey, USA, Lebanon and Armenia. He is the recipient of several awards and fellowships such as Fulbright, FLAS, and the Gulbenkian Scholarship for Armenian Studies among others. He is a frequent contributor to Aztag Daily, Asbarez and Armenian Weekly.