Sonya Armaghanyan is a humanitarian worker, community engagement specialist, and a theatre practitioner. Her work focuses on creating spaces of encounter and humanising ‘the other’ by exploring the world from the point of view of the collective and of cultural richness. She is currently working with the Mental Health and Psychological Support Programme for the UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and is based in L’viv, Western Ukraine. In the past five years she has worked across programmes focusing on the areas of peacebuilding, social cohesion, and community-based mental health and psychosocial support.  

Sonya specialises in theatre and storytelling and, as part of her work, she uses art-based approaches as a process for community engagement and facilitation of a space where affected communities can share their thoughts and express their feelings in times of crises, regain sense of normalcy, re-establish their sense of belonging, explore their collective identity and strengthen their communal social links. Sonya is the recipient of the Swiss Humanitarian Award 2018 for her research paper “Theatre as Psychosocial Approach in Humanitarian Settings.” She is a Fellow with the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. In 2023, Sonya was nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award. 

Participant in: August 2024 Fellowship: The Arts as a Tool for Peacebuilding