معرفی
Caleb Smith is a Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University. He teaches courses in American literature, cultural history, and critical theory, including special offerings at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution through the Yale Prison Education Initiative. His research focuses on the cultural dynamics of discipline in American society, exploring contradictions between liberty and slavery, secularism and fanaticism, and tolerance and exclusion. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Duke University (2005) and a B.A. from UC Berkeley (1999).
In his work, Smith examines how cultural narratives shape ethical and political authority, notably through his edited edition of Austin Reed’s The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict (2016), the first prison memoir by an African American writer. His books include The Prison and the American Imagination (2009), The Oracle and the Curse (2013), and Thoreau’s Axe: Distraction and Discipline in American Culture (2024). He is a contributing editor to Critical Inquiry and frequently writes for outlets like n+1 and Los Angeles Review of Books.
Smith’s academic awards include an Honorable Mention for the Foerster Prize (2006). His advising and grants sections remain unspecified, though he organizes literary series such as the No Crisis project at LARB. He is affiliated with the Yale Prison Education Initiative and represented by The Strothman Agency.
