Barbara Herrnstein Smith

Barbara Herrnstein Smith
Braxton Craven Distinguished Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and English

Smith's research has been concerned with literary theory, poetry and poetics, ideas of value and judgment, and intellectual controversies over science and knowledge. Her current work focuses on developments in cognitive science and the philosophy of biology, intellectual issues involving science and religion, and the historical, intellectual and institutional relations between the sciences and the humanities.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Braxton Craven Distinguished Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and English, Literature, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2011
Professor Emeritus of Literature, Literature, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2011

Contact Information

9 Towhee Drive, Topsham, ME 04086
Box 90670, The Program in Literature, Durham, NC 27708
bhsmith@duke.edu (919) 612-5065

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Brandeis University 1965
- M.A., Brandeis University 1955
- B.A., Brandeis University 1954
Duke Appointment History
- Professor with Tenure, Literature, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1987 - 2011
- Interim Director, Literature, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2004
- Acting Director, Program in Literature, Literature, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2000
Recognition
Awards & Honors
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. Practicing Relativism in the Anthropocene On Science, Belief, and the Humanities, 2018.
    Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. Natural reflections: Human cognition at the nexus of science and religion, 2010.
  - Smith, B. H. Scandalous knowledge: Science, truth and the human, 2006.
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein, and Arkady Plotnitsky. Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory. Duke University Press, 1997.
  - Smith, B. H. Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy. Harvard UP, 1997.
  - Smith, Barbara H., and Darryl J. Gless, eds. The Politics of Liberal Education. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1991.
  - Smith, Barbera Herrnstein. Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. Cambridge MA and London UK: Harvard University Press, 1988.
    Link to Item
  - Smith, B. H. On the Margins of Discourse: The Relation of Literature to Language. U of Chicago P, 1978.
  - Smith, B. H. Poetic Closure. Edited by Alex Preminger at al. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton 1993), 1974.
  - Smith, B. H., B. H. ed, and B. H. Introduction. Shakespeare’s Sonnets. New York: Avon Books, and New York UP, 1969.
  - Smith, B. H. Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End. U of Chicago P, 1968.
  - Smith, B. H., and B. H. ed. Discussions of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1964.
- Academic Articles
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “Unloading the Self-Refutation Charge.” Common Knowledge 25, no. 1–3 (April 1, 2019): 76–91. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754x-7299138.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “SCIENTIZING THE HUMANITIES.” Common Knowledge 22, no. 3 (September 2016): 353–72. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754x-3622212.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “Anthropotheology: Latour speaking religiously.” New Literary History 47, no. 2–3 (March 1, 2016): 331–51. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2016.0017.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “What Was “Close Reading”?” The Minnesota Review 2016, no. 87 (2016): 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1215/00265667-3630844.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns.” Common Knowledge 20, no. 3 (October 1, 2014): 491–93. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754x-2732820.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Watson, J. “On Free-Wheeling Careers: An Interview with Barbara Herrnstein Smith.” The Minnesota Review 2013, no. 80 (January 1, 2013): 62–79. https://doi.org/10.1215/00265667-2018361.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “Science and religion, natural and unnatural,” December 1, 2012, 101–10. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-752-3.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “"Dolls, Demons and DNA".” London Review of Books 34 (March 2012).
    Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “Reading at large: Reflections on the forum "What can reading do?".” Novel 45, no. 1 (March 1, 2012): 27–29. https://doi.org/10.1215/00295132-1541333.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “Chinese comparisons and questionable acts.” Common Knowledge 17, no. 1 (December 1, 2011): 42–47. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-2010-034.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “The Entwinement of Religion and Economics: Comments on Bradley Bateman's "In a Space of Questions".” History of Political Economy 43, no. 2 (June 1, 2011): 423–28. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-1257514.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “Clearing up after the science wars: A response to emily A. Schultz.” Reviews in Anthropology 40, no. 2 (April 1, 2011): 165–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/00938157.2011.572475.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “THE CHIMERA OF RELATIVISM A Tragicomedy.” Common Knowledge 17, no. 1 (2011): 13–26. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-2010-030.
    Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Schneider, Nathan, and Nathan BHS. ““Religion, Science, and the Humanities: An Interview with Barbara Herrnstein Smith”.” The Immanent Frame, June 2010.
    Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. ““Science and Religion: Lives and Rocks”.” New York Times, January 2010.
  - Smith, B. H. “"It’s Like Getting Married".” London Review of Books 31 (February 2009): 10–12.
    Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “"Naturalism, Otherwise".” The Immanent Frame, June 2008.
  - Smith, B. H. “"Cognitive Machinery and Explanatory Ambitions".” Online Forum, the Immanent Frame, June 2008.
  - Smith, B. H. “Relativism, Today and Yesterday.” Common Knowledge 13 (2007): 227–49.
  - Smith, B. H. “Endurance, Otherwise: a Response to Martin Meuller.” Salmagundi 88–89 (2007): 455–68.
  - Smith, B. H. “Animal relatives, difficult relations.” Differences 15, no. 1 (March 1, 2004): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1215/10407391-15-1-1.
    Full Text
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “Animal Ralatives, Difficult Relations,".” Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 13, no. 1 (2004): 1–15.
  - Smith, B. H. “Reply to an Analytic Philosopher.” South Atlantic Quarterly 101, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 229–42. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-101-1-229.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “Cutting-Edge Equivocation: Conceptual Moves and Rhetorical Strategies in Contemporary Anti-Epistemology.” South Atlantic Quarterly 101, no. 1 (January 1, 2002): 187–212. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-101-1-187.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, B. H. “Sewing Up the Mind: The Claims of Evolutionary Psychology.” Edited by H. Rose and S. Rose, 2000, 129–43.
  - Smith, B. H. “Review of Brian Cantwell Smith, *On the Origin of Objects*.” Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society 89 (1999): 772–73.
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “On the Origin of Objects. Brian Cantwell Smith.” Isis 89, no. 4 (December 1998): 772–73. https://doi.org/10.1086/384232.
    Full Text
  - Smith, B. H. “How the mind works.” Tls the Times Literary Supplement, no. 4951 (February 20, 1998): 3–4.
    Link to Item
  - Smith, B. H. “"Is it Really a Computer?".” Times Literary Supplement, February 1998, 3–4.
  - Smith, B. H. “"Evaluation" and "Value".” Edited by Michael Kelly, 1998.
  - Smith, B. H. “Review of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto’s *Truth: A History*.” The Times Literary Supplement, October 1997, 18–18.
  - Smith, B. H. “Review of Rom Harre and Michael Krausz, *Varieties of Relativism*.” Common Knowledge 6 (1997): 104–104.
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “The Hermeneutic Circle.” Pmla/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 111, no. 3 (May 1996): 465–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/463169.
    Full Text
  - Smith, B. H. “The Hermeneutic Circle.” Pmla 111 (1996): 465–66.
  - SMITH, B. H., and A. PLOTNITSKY. “NETWORKS AND SYMMETRIES, DECIDABLE AND UNDECIDABLE - INTRODUCTION.” South Atlantic Quarterly 94, no. 2 (1995): 371–88.
    Link to Item
  - Smith, B. H. “Circling Around, Knocking Over, Playing Out: Reply to Robert J. Richards,” 1994.
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “Making (Up) the Truth: Constructivist Contributions.” University of Toronto Quarterly 61, no. 4 (May 1992): 422–29. https://doi.org/10.3138/utq.61.4.422.
    Full Text
  - Smith, B. H. “Making (Up) the Truth: Constructivist Contributions.” University of Toronto Quarterly 61 (1992): 422–29.
  - Smith, B. H. “The Unquiet Judge: Activism Without Objectivism in Law and Politics.” Annals of Scholarship 9 (1992): 111–13.
  - Smith, B. H. “Unloading the Self-Refutation Charge.” Common Knowledge 2 (1992): 81–95.
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “Belief and Resistance: A Symmetrical Account.” Critical Inquiry 18, no. 1 (October 1991): 125–39. https://doi.org/10.1086/448626.
    Full Text
  - SMITH, B. H. “THE STORM OVER THE UNIVERSITY + SEARLE ON CURRENT EDUCATIONAL CONTROVERSIES - AN EXCHANGE.” New York Review of Books 38, no. 4 (February 14, 1991): 48–48.
    Link to Item
  - SMITH, B. H. “ENDURANCE, OTHERWISE A RESPONSE TO MUELLER,MARTIN.” Salmagundi a Quarterly of the Humanities and Social Sciences, no. 88–89 (1991): 455–68.
    Link to Item
  - Smith, B. H. “The Complex Agony of Injustice.” Cardozo Law Review 13 (1991): 101–4.
  - SMITH, B. H. “CULT-LIT, HIRSCH, LITERACY, AND THE NATIONAL CULTURE.” South Atlantic Quarterly 89, no. 1 (1990): 69–88.
    Link to Item
  - Smith, B. H. “Judgment After the Fall.” Cardozo Law Review 11 (1990): 1291–1311.
  - Smith, B. H. “Limelight: Reflections on a Public Year (Presidential Address to the MLA).” Pmla 104 (1989): 285–93.
  - Smith, B. H. “Issues in Contemporary Literary Education.” Duke Dialogue, March 1988.
  - Smith, B. H. “Reply to Lynne V. Cheney.” Mla Newsletter, 1988.
  - Smith, B. H. “Curing the Humanities, Correcting the Humanists.” Mla Newsletter, 1988.
  - SMITH, B. H. “VALUE/EVALUATION.” South Atlantic Quarterly 86, no. 4 (1987): 445–55.
    Link to Item
  - Smith, B. H. “Value Without Truth-Value.” Edited by John Fekete, 1987.
  - Smith, B. H. “Value/Evaluation.” South Atlantic Quarterly 86 (1987): 444–55.
  - Smith, B. H. “Masters and Servants: Theory in the Literary Academy.” Edited by Gerhard Hoffman Munich, 1986.
  - Smith, B. H. “Towards the Practice of Theory.” Edited by H. W. Matalene, 1984.
  - Smith, B. H. “Standards and Judgments: A Post-Axiological Essay.” Tamking Review 14 (1984): 462–85.
  - Smith, B. H. “Contingencies of Value.” Critical Inquiry 10 (1983): 1–35.
  - Smith, B. H. “Narrative Versions, Narrative Theories.” Critical Inquiry 6 (1980): 213–36.
  - Smith, B. H. “Fixed Marks and Variable Constancies: A Parable of Literary Value.” Poetics Today, Reprinted in Hebrew Translation, Siman Kriya, Summer 1981 1 (1979): 1–22.
  - Smith, B. H. “Actions, Fictions and the Ethics of Interpretation.” Centrum 3 (1977): 117–32.
  - Smith, B. H. “Surfacing from the Deep.” Ptl: A Journal for Descriptive Poetics and Theory of Literature 2 (1977): 151–82.
  - Smith, B. H. “On the Margins of Discourse.” Critical Inquiry 1 (1975): 769–98.
  - Smith, B. H. “Women Artists: Some Muted Notes.” Journal of Communications 24 (1974): 146–49.
  - Smith, B. H. “Review of Paul Hernandi, *Beyond Genre: New Directions in Literary Classification*.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 32 (1973): 296–98.
  - Smith, B. H. “The New Imagism.” Midway: A Magazine of Discovery in the Arts and Sciences 9 (1969): 27–44.
  - Smith, B. H. “’Sorrow’s Mysteries’: Keat’s ’Ode on Melancholy’.” Studies in English Literature, 1500 1900 6 (1966): 679–91.
- Book Sections
  - Smith, B. H. “Science and religion, natural and unnatural.” In Sacred Science?: On Science and Its Interrelations with Religious Worldviews, 101–10, 2012. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-752-3_8.
    Full Text
  - Smith, B. H. “Comment.” In Goodness and Advice, 132–44, 2009.
- Conference Papers
  - Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. “Netting Truth.” In Pmla/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 115:1089–95. Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2000. https://doi.org/10.2307/463280.
    Full Text
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Service to the Profession
- member : American Academy of Religion. 2008 2008

Some information on this profile has been compiled automatically from Duke databases and external sources. (Our About page explains how this works.) If you see a problem with the information, please write to Scholars@Duke and let us know. We will reply promptly.

Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

Awards & Honors

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Conference Papers

Presentations & Appearances

Service to the Profession