Sona Tajiryan

Dr. Sona Tajiryan is a Board Member of the Armenian Jewellers Association (AJA) and a historian specializing in the global gemstone trade and the history of Armenian merchants. Her research explores the role of Armenian family businesses in the international diamond and gemstone trade between the Indian subcontinent and the Mediterranean during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through her academic work, she brings historical insight into Armenia's longstanding contribution to the international jewellery and gemstone industry.

Sona holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as bachelor's and master's degrees in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies from Yerevan State University. From 2022 to 2024, she served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), researching historical gemstone trading networks and Armenian merchant families. She is currently Associate Director of Development at the American University of Armenia. Her research has been published in GIA's Gems & Gemology, including a 2026 study of a seventeenth-century Armenian merchant's extensive gemstone inventory, contributing to a deeper understanding of Armenian participation in the historic global luxury trade.