Waldman, Marilyn Robinson

Waldman, Marilyn Robinson

WALDMAN, MARILYN ROBINSON (1943–1996), was an American-born historian of religion with unusually strong commitments, knowledge, and convictions regarding Islam and Muslims. Born in Dallas, Texas, Marilyn Robinson Waldman was of Eastern European Jewish descent. Following undergraduate studies in African history at Radcliffe, she studied Islamic and African history at the University of London (1964–1965) and earned a PhD in Islamic history at the University of Chicago, where Marshall G. S. Hodgson was her most influential teacher. In her work, she combined clarity and toughness of mind with humanity and humor. She loved to find laughter where she could.

Though her life was cut short by cancer at age fifty-three, Waldman established a remarkably prolific record as a speaker, traveler, teacher, consultant, organizer, and university administrator. She was famously active in the American Academy of Religion, the American Society for the Study of Religion, the American Institute of Iranian Studies, and the World History Association. Additionally she served on the editorial boards of numerous journals and consulted on curriculum and program reform for a number of schools. At The Ohio State University (OSU), where she spent her entire professional career, she served on literally dozens of committees and held appointments in the Department of History, the Middle East Studies Program, and the Center (later Division) of Comparative Studies in the Humanities, an experimental interdisciplinary unit that she directed for several years and, in large measure, reinvented.

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