Marjorie Housepian Dobkin

Who was Marjorie Housepian Dobkin?

Marjorie Anais Housepian Dobkin was Professor Emerita in English at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York. Her books include the novel A Houseful of Love and the history Smyrna 1922.

Housepian Dobkin was born of Armenian parents in New York in 1922, two and a half months after her grandfather was killed by a Turkish soldier during the burning of Smyrna, from which her grandmother fled as a refugee. Dobkin attended Barnard College, graduating in 1944. She was both a professor of literature and writing as well as associate dean of studies at Barnard from 1957 until 1993.

She has been awarded the Anania Shirakatsi prize of the Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Wilson College.