Stephen Riegg

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the history department at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Thanks to the generous support of the Doris Quinn Fellowship, I am completing the writing of my dissertation, 'Claiming the Caucasus:  Russia's Imperial Encounter with Armenia, 1801-1894.'  My project traces the evolution of Russo-Armenian relations in the 19th century, analyzing the political absorption of the Armenian nation into the Russian empire.  By focusing on the transformation of the Russian administrative approach toward Armenians, I uncover the methods of imperial tsarist rule in the Caucasus and beyond.  Beginning with Russia's annexation of territory in the South Caucasus in 1801, and ending with Tsar Alexander III's death in 1894, my work investigates the ways in which tsarist authorities and their Armenian subjects negotiated the shifting parameters of their complex relationship.  Relaying on rare and underutilized archival records from Russia and Armenia, my dissertation provides the first full-scale history of Russia's incorporation of Armenia into the empire.