Adalian received his PhD in history from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1987; his dissertation focused on Nicholas Adontz.[2]
He is the author of many scientific works and articles, including Historical Dictionary of Armenia and From Humanism to Rationalism: Armenian Scholarship in the Nineteenth Century, where Adalian "has provided a useful overview of an important topic which has not received its just attention in the English language".[3] In his review of the Historical Dictionary of Armenia, Ladis K.D. Kristof wrote that it is "highly successful in providing us with a broad and reliable socio-historical background to the politically still quite unsettled and economically devastated present day Armenia."[4]
He is the editor of Armenia and Karabagh Factbook,[5] and associate editor of award-winning Encyclopedia of Genocide.
