Barbara H. Smith | Scholars@Duke

Barbara H. Smith
Braxton Craven 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 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 90015, Durham, NC 27708-0015
bhsmith@duke.edu (919) 383-0840

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, BH. Natural reflections: Human cognition at the nexus of science and religion. December 1, 2010.
  - Smith, BH. Scandalous knowledge: Science, truth and the human. January 1, 2006.
  - Smith, BH. Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy. Harvard UP, 1997.
  - Smith, BH. Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. Cambridge MA and London UK: Harvard University Press, 1988. (Monograph) Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. On the Margins of Discourse: The Relation of Literature to Language. U of Chicago P, 1978.
  - Smith, BH. Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End. U of Chicago P, 1968.
- Book Sections
  - Smith, BH. "Science and religion, natural and unnatural." In Sacred Science?: On Science and Its Interrelations with Religious Worldviews, 101-110. April 1, 2012. Full Text
  - Smith, BH. "Comment." In Goodness and Advice, 132-144. February 9, 2009.
- Conference Papers
  - Jensen, CB, Smith, BH, Lloyd, GER, Holbraad, M, Roepstorff, A, Stengers, I, Verran, H, Brown, SD, Winthereik, BR, Strathern, M, Kapferer, B, Mol, A, Pedersen, MA, Viveiros De Castro, E, Candea, M, Battaglia, D, and Wagner, R. "Comparative relativism: Symposium on an impossibility." December 1, 2011. Full Text
  - Smith, BH. "Netting truth." October 2000. Full Text Link to Item
- Journal Articles
  - Smith, BH. "SCIENTIZING THE HUMANITIES Shifts, Collisions, Negotiations." COMMON KNOWLEDGE 22, no. 3 (September 2016): 353-372. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Anthropotheology: Latour Speaking Religiously." New Literary History 47, no. 2-3 (2016): 331-351. Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, BH. "What Was "Close Reading"? A Century of Method in Literary Studies." MINNESOTA REVIEW , no. 87 (2016): 57-75. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns." Common Knowledge 20, no. 3 (October 1, 2014): 491-493. 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. Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Smith, BH. "Science and religion, natural and unnatural." (December 1, 2012): 101-110. (Chapter) Full Text
  - Smith, BH. ""Dolls, Demons and DNA"." London Review of Books 34 (March 2012). Open Access Copy
  - Smith, BH. "Reading at Large: Reflections on the Forum "What Can Reading Do?"." NOVEL-A FORUM ON FICTION 45, no. 1 (2012): 27-29. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Clearing up after the science wars: A response to emily A. Schultz." Reviews in Anthropology 40, no. 2 (April 1, 2011): 165-168. Full Text
  - Smith, BH. "CHINESE COMPARISONS AND QUESTIONABLE ACTS." COMMON KNOWLEDGE 17, no. 1 (2011): 42-47. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "The Entwinement of Religion and Economics: Comments on Bradley Bateman's "In a Space of Questions"." HISTORY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 43, no. 2 (2011): 423-428. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "THE CHIMERA OF RELATIVISM A Tragicomedy." COMMON KNOWLEDGE 17, no. 1 (2011): 13-26. Full Text Open Access Copy Link to Item
  - Schneider, N, and BHS, . "“Religion, Science, and the Humanities: An Interview with Barbara Herrnstein Smith”." The Immanent Frame (June 2010).
  - Smith, BH. "“Science and Religion: Lives and Rocks”." New York Times (January 2010).
  - Smith, BH. "Comments." (February 9, 2009): 132-144. (Chapter)
  - Smith, BH. ""It’s Like Getting Married"." London Review of Books 31 (February 2009): 10-12.
  - Smith, BH. ""Naturalism, Otherwise"." The Immanent Frame (June 2008).
  - Smith, BH. ""Cognitive Machinery and Explanatory Ambitions"." Online Forum, The Immanent Frame (June 2008).
  - Smith, BH. "Relativism, Today and Yesterday." Common Knowledge 13 (2007): 227-249.
  - Smith, BH. "Endurance, Otherwise: a Response to Martin Meuller." Salmagundi 88-89 (2007): 455-68.
  - Smith, BH. "Animal relatives, difficult relations." Differences 15, no. 1 (March 1, 2004): 1-23. Full Text
  - Smith, BH. "Animal Ralatives, Difficult Relations,"." Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 13, no. 1 (2004): 1-15. (Academic Article)
  - Smith, BH. "Reply to an analytic philosopher." SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY 101, no. 1 (2002): 229-242. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Cutting-edge equivocation: Conceptual moves and rhetorical strategies in contemporary anti-epistemology." SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY 101, no. 1 (2002): 187-212. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Sewing Up the Mind: The Claims of Evolutionary Psychology." Edited by H Rose and S Rose. (2000): 129-143.
  - Smith, BH. "Review of Brian Cantwell Smith, *On the Origin of Objects*." Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society 89 (1999): 772-773.
  - Smith, BH. "On the origin of objects." ISIS 89, no. 4 (December 1998): 772-773. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "How the mind works." TLS-THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT , no. 4951 (February 20, 1998): 3-4. Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. ""Is it Really a Computer?"." Times Literary Supplement (February 1998): 3-4.
  - Smith, BH. ""Evaluation" and "Value"." Edited by M Kelly. (1998).
  - Smith, BH. "Review of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto’s *Truth: A History*." The Times Literary Supplement (October 1997): 18-18.
  - Smith, BH. "Review of Rom Harre and Michael Krausz, *Varieties of Relativism*." Common Knowledge 6 (1997): 104-104.
  - SMITH, BH, and AMRINE, F. "A HERMENEUTIC CIRCLE + CRITICAL-THEORY." PMLA-PUBLICATIONS OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 111, no. 3 (May 1996): 465-466. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "The Hermeneutic Circle." PMLA 111 (1996): 465-66.
  - SMITH, BH, and PLOTNITSKY, A. "NETWORKS AND SYMMETRIES, DECIDABLE AND UNDECIDABLE - INTRODUCTION." SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY 94, no. 2 (1995): 371-388. Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Circling Around, Knocking Over, Playing Out: Reply to Robert J. Richards." (1994).
  - SMITH, BH. "MAKING UP THE TRUTH + THE NOTION OF PHILOSOPHICAL VERITY IN CURRENT SCHOLARSHIP - CONSTRUCTIVIST CONTRIBUTIONS." UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY 61, no. 4 (1992): 422-429. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Making (Up) the Truth: Constructivist Contributions." University of Toronto Quarterly 61 (1992): 422-29.
  - Smith, BH. "The Unquiet Judge: Activism Without Objectivism in Law and Politics." Annals of Scholarship 9 (1992): 111-13.
  - Smith, BH. "Unloading the Self-Refutation Charge." Common Knowledge 2 (1992): 81-95.
  - SMITH, BH. "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, BH. "ENDURANCE, OTHERWISE A RESPONSE TO MUELLER,MARTIN." SALMAGUNDI-A QUARTERLY OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES , no. 88-89 (1991): 455-468. Link to Item
  - SMITH, BH. "BELIEF AND RESISTANCE, A SYMMETRICAL ACCOUNT." CRITICAL INQUIRY 18, no. 1 (1991): 125-139. Full Text Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "The Complex Agony of Injustice." Cardozo Law Review 13 (1991): 101-04.
  - SMITH, BH. "CULT-LIT, HIRSCH, LITERACY, AND THE NATIONAL CULTURE." SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY 89, no. 1 (1990): 69-88. Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Judgment After the Fall." Cardozo Law Review 11 (1990): 1291-1311.
  - Smith, BH. "Limelight: Reflections on a Public Year (Presidential Address to the MLA)." PMLA 104 (1989): 285-93.
  - Smith, BH. "Issues in Contemporary Literary Education." Duke Dialogue (March 1988).
  - Smith, BH. "Reply to Lynne V. Cheney." MLA Newsletter (1988).
  - Smith, BH. "Curing the Humanities, Correcting the Humanists." MLA Newsletter (1988).
  - SMITH, BH. "VALUE/EVALUATION." SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY 86, no. 4 (1987): 445-455. Link to Item
  - Smith, BH. "Value Without Truth-Value." Edited by J Fekete. (1987).
  - Smith, BH. "Value/Evaluation." South Atlantic Quarterly 86 (1987): 444-55.
  - Smith, BH. "Masters and Servants: Theory in the Literary Academy." Edited by GH Munich. (1986).
  - Smith, BH. "Towards the Practice of Theory." Edited by HW Matalene. (1984).
  - Smith, BH. "Standards and Judgments: A Post-Axiological Essay." Tamking Review 14 (1984): 462-85.
  - Smith, BH. "Contingencies of Value." Critical Inquiry 10 (1983): 1-35.
  - Smith, BH. "Narrative Versions, Narrative Theories." Critical Inquiry 6 (1980): 213-36.
  - Smith, BH. "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, BH. "Actions, Fictions and the Ethics of Interpretation." Centrum 3 (1977): 117-32.
  - Smith, BH. "Surfacing from the Deep." PTL: A Journal for Descriptive Poetics and Theory of Literature 2 (1977): 151-82.
  - Smith, BH. "On the Margins of Discourse." Critical Inquiry 1 (1975): 769-98.
  - Smith, BH. "Poetic Closure." Edited by APA al. (1974).
  - Smith, BH. "Women Artists: Some Muted Notes." Journal of Communications 24 (1974): 146-49.
  - Smith, BH. "Review of Paul Hernandi, *Beyond Genre: New Directions in Literary Classification*." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 32 (1973): 296-98.
  - Smith, BH. "The New Imagism." Midway: A Magazine of Discovery in the Arts and Sciences 9 (1969): 27-44.
  - Smith, BH. "’Sorrow’s Mysteries’: Keat’s ’Ode on Melancholy’." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 6 (1966): 679-91.
- Other Articles
  - Smith, BH, and Plotnitsky, A. "Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory." (March 4, 1997).
  - Smith, BH, Gless, D, eds, , and Introduction, . "The Politics of Liberal Education." (1969).
  - Smith, BH, ed, , and Introduction, . "Shakespeare’s Sonnets." (1969).
  - Smith, BH, and ed, . "Discussions of Shakespeare’s Sonnets." (1964).
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Service to the Profession
- member : American Academy of Religion. 2008 2008

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

Awards & Honors

Selected Publications

Books

Book Sections

Conference Papers

Journal Articles

Other Articles

Presentations & Appearances

Service to the Profession