The Urban Sustainability Living Lab is proud to announce that Dr Harutyun Vermishyan (Yerevan State University YSU) is currently visiting the Department of Geography and Regional Research as a Guest Professor (Research).

Harutyun Vermishyan is the Chair of Theory and History of Sociology at YSU as well as the Head of YSU´s Territorial Studies and Development Lab (TS&D Lab). His research focuses on urban transformation, social identity and post-socialist spatial change.

In his guest professorship on Afterlives of Soviet Industrial Urban Structures, he builds on, and expands, the collaborative research on revitalizing former small industrial cities in Armenia to enhance their transformative potential towards sustainability (ReCITY).

In addition to his research, Harutyun Vermishyan is teaching a seminar on “Post-Industrial Transformations in Post-Socialist Cities” as part of the new programme Geographies of Global Change and Sustainability Transformations GGCST within the Urban Studies specialisation. The seminar offers students an opportunity to engage with the post-industrial transformations of post-socialist cities through a comparative research-oriented approach, which combines elements of urban theories with practical elements of qualitative research methods. Students can choose one of the following research lenses to focus on: urban heritage, socio-spatial inclusion/exclusion, environmental sustainability care and maintenance, the role of urban governance as a mechanism of post-industrial change.

Brownbag lunch – 6 May 2026

Post-Industrial Transformation in Armenian Small Towns: Methodological Approaches to Resilience Before Sustainability

This presentation highlights the ReCITY project which studies the post-industrial transformation processes in small towns in Armenia and explores ways in which post-industrial small towns can produce new perspectives for a sustainable urban future.Based on three case studies, namely those of Stepanavan, Charentsavan, and Sisian, the discourse draws on the role of the Soviet legacy of industry, post-Soviet restructuring, depopulation trends, infrastructural instability, and uncertainty about the future as they impact urban everyday life.

In addition to the discussion of the context, the presentation covers the methodology used by the ReCITY team which includes among other methods, narrative interviewing, observation, mapping and photography. Such an approach allows moving away from a one-sided narrative of degradation, and understanding the way in which small towns keep functioning and creating their own discourses of place.

Finally, the conclusion is made by introducing the notion of “resilience before sustainability” as a necessary step toward understanding the preconditions for sustainable urbanism.

Where: NIG, Universitätsstraße 7, 5th floor, lecture room 5A

When: 6 May, 12:00-13:00

Photo: Kerstin Krellenberg