
Garine Palandjian is serving as Postdoctoral Research Scholar for the ASU Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies. Garine earned her PhD in Educational Policy and Evaluation at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College of Arizona State University. As a border thinker, Garine uses a decolonial lens for her dissertation research in Armenia to explore how borders – and memories of bordering practices and experiences – redefine education and identities. Using a critical educational ethnographic approach, her study examines how (re)thinking borders can help redefine education and identities in more inclusive ways, recognizing the plurality of education visions and the possible futures that they hold. Moreover, Garine’s dissertation aims to analyze the capacity and potential of education to contribute to more peaceful relationships among different ethnic groups in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey as well as to make clear the constraints of schools in fulfilling this role. Garine has experience providing consultancy and policy recommendations for governmental and international organizations, including the United States Department of State, USAID, International Research & Exchanges Board, and American Councils for International Education.