معرفی
Faith Smith holds the Marta F. Kauffman '78 Professorship in African and African American Studies and is a Professor of English at Brandeis University. She also serves as Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies, with affiliations in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, CAST, and Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. Her research focuses on Caribbean cultural production, Black diasporic literature, and the afterlives of slavery, indenture, and empire, with interdisciplinary interests in gender, sexuality, and postcolonial theory.
Smith earned her PhD from Duke University, preceded by an MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA from the University of the West Indies. She has held prestigious fellowships at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, the National Humanities Center, and the Huntington Library.
Her scholarship bridges historical and contemporary engagements with Caribbean intellectual and cultural life. Notable works include Strolling in the Ruins: The Caribbean’s Non-sovereign Modern in the Early 20th Century (2023) and the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Caribbean Studies chapter on kinship and fabric symbolism. Her articles span journals like Victorian Literature and Culture, Small Axe, and Journal of Transnational American Studies.
Awards include the Dean of Arts & Sciences Faculty Service Award (2020) and grants for interdisciplinary projects such as “Silk Roads and Highways: Imagining ‘China’ in the Caribbean Today.” She teaches courses on Black diasporic narratives, Caribbean literature, and gender studies, integrating creative writing and transnational frameworks.
Smith’s work often intersects with activism and public scholarship, exemplified by her contributions to the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History and her editorial role at Small Axe. She leads research initiatives at Brandeis’ Mandel Humanities Center and maintains an active profile in global academic networks.
