As part of an ongoing initiative to expand global partnerships between various prestigious academic institutions, Ph.D. Daniel P. O’Connor on behalf of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas and Professor Artur Mkrtichyan on behalf of the Sociology Faculty at Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia have agreed to a college-to-college partnership MOU to encourage collaborative projects between the two. The initial collaborative project that serves as the basis of the MOU is the work being done by Dr. Stella Grigorian, Assistant Chair of the Department of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston and Dr. Yuliana Melkumyan, Chair of Social Work and Social Technologies of the Sociology Faculty of Yerevan State University. Both professors are collaborating on developing ways to create opportunities for their respective students who are enrolled in their sociology and social work courses to connect with each other online during a single term in order to participate in creating joint student projects, in the exchange of ideas through online discussions, in order to enhance cross-cultural communication and understanding. It is hoped that this initial project will be the beginning possibly of other future collaborations between the faculties of the respective institutions.
