A portrait of Armenian student life at the Syrian Protestant College 1885-1920 -

Abstract

In December 1866 the Syrian Protestant College opened its doors with four professors and sixteen students. The College soon became a recognized center of higher education in the Ottoman Empire, and attracted without discrimination a large number of students from all over the Empire. Daniel Bliss, the founding father of the college, quickly organized a medical department to fulfill the needs of the region. After the language change in the medical department from Arabic to English, non-Arabic speaking students, among whom were many Armenians, started enrolling in the College. This thesis, “A Portrait of Armenian Student Life at the Syrian Protestant College: 1885-1920,” examines the denominational, social and economic background of more than 230 Armenian students who came from Anatolia, anxious to study medicine at the SPC. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of SPC education on those students in the construction of an Armenian national consciousness. Besides exploring an important aspect of the College’s history and reconstructing student life during a challenging era, this thesis also highlights the exceptional but marginalized role played by the Armenian medical Alumni of the University during the First World War.