Smbat Hovhannisyan is a historian, poet and translator. He graduated from the Faculty of History at Yerevan State University. He teaches at the same faculty’s international history program as an associate professor, as well as at the American University of Armenia as a guest lecturer. He has authored a monograph, over 30 academic articles, as well as many translations (Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Yuri Lotman, Osim Mandelstam, Rayner Maria Rilke, etc.).

His academic interests include theories of historiography, civilization, semiotics and history, problems of Armenian and international trade capital in the pre-industrial and industrial periods.