Azlan Smith

Azlan Smith is a Research Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Department of English. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) and are pursuing a Ph.D. in Writing Studies, with research interests spanning collaborative storytelling as research, multimodal writing, public art facilitation, and scholarly communities across departmental boundaries.

Research Interests include creative writing pedagogy, the intersection of art and academia, and the role of storytelling in knowledge creation. Their work emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to writing studies and public humanities engagement.

Scientific Awards

• Public Humanities Fellow (iRegen)

Azlan teaches courses such as Rhetoric 105 and The Odyssey Project (Critical Thinking and Writing Instructor), while serving as Writers Workshop Assistant Director. They actively engage in creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, exploring themes of human connection, cultural systems, and the relationship between writing and social structures.