Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory Emeritus Faculty Database
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Barbara H. Smith, Braxton Craven Distinguished Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and English

Barbara H. Smith

Please note: Barbara has left the "Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

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.

Contact Info:
Office Location:  
Email Address: send me a message

Education:

Ph.D.Brandeis University1965
M.A.Brandeis University1955
B.A.Brandeis University1954
Specialties:

Critical Theory
Critical Theory
Science and Literature
Comparative Literature
Modern to Contemporary
Research Interests: critical theory; epistemology and philosophy of science; social studies of science; issues in science and religion; relations between sciences and humanities

Current projects: Critical and historical study of efforts by humanities scholars to import ideas, models, methods and aims from the natural sciences into their own disciplines.

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.

Areas of Interest:

epistemology
philosophy of science
developments in cognitive science
developments in philosophy of biology
sociology and history of science
issues in science and religion
relations between sciences and humanities
20th-century intellectual history

Keywords:

epistemology • philosophy of science • science studies • science and religion • 20th-century intellectual history • humanities and sciences

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

    Representative Publications   (More Publications)

    1. Smith, BH, Practicing Relativism in the Anthropocene On Science, Belief, and the Humanities (October, 2018), pp. 152 pages, Open Humanities Press, ISBN 1785420704 [available here]  [abs]
    2. Smith, BH, Scientizing the humanities: Shifts, collisions, negotiations, Common Knowledge, vol. 22 no. 3 (September, 2016), pp. 353-372, Duke University Press [doi]
    3. Smith, BH, Natural reflections: Human cognition at the nexus of science and religion, The Terry Lectures Series (Winter, 2010), pp. 1-206, Yale University Press, ISBN 9780300140347 [book.asp]  [abs]
    4. Smith, BH, Anthropotheology: Latour speaking religiously, New Literary History, vol. 47 no. 2-3 (March, 2016), pp. 331-351, Johns Hopkins University Press [doi]
    5. Scandalous Knowledge: Science, Truth and the Human (2005/2006), Edinburgh UP/Duke UP [books.php3]  [abs]
    6. Smith, BH, What Was "close Reading"?: A Century of Method in Literary Studies, Minnesota Review, vol. 2016 no. 87 (January, 2016), pp. 57-75, Duke University Press [doi]
    7. Smith, BH, Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy (1997), Harvard UP
    8. Smith, BH, Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory (1988), Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-16786-4  [abs]
    9. Smith, BH, Cutting-edge equivocation: Conceptual moves and rhetorical strategies in contemporary anti-epistemology, South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 101 no. 1 (January, 2002), pp. 187-212, Duke University Press, ISSN 0038-2876 [Gateway.cgi], [doi]
    10. Smith, BH, On the Margins of Discourse: The Relation of Literature to Language (1978), U of Chicago P
    11. Smith, BH, Animal Ralatives, Difficult Relations,", Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, vol. 13 no. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 1-15, Duke University Press (Special issue, "Man and Beast," ed Elizabeth Weed and Ellen Rooney.) [doi]
    12. Smith, BH, Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End (1968), U of Chicago P
    13. Smith, BH, Unloading the self-refutation charge, Common Knowledge, vol. 25 no. 1-3 (January, 2019), pp. 76-91, Duke University Press [doi]  [abs]
    14. Smith, BH, THE CHIMERA OF RELATIVISM A Tragicomedy, Common Knowledge, vol. 17 no. 1 (Winter, 2011), pp. 13-26, Duke University Press, ISSN 0961-754X [Gateway.cgi], [doi]
    15. Schneider, N; BHS,, “Religion, Science, and the Humanities: An Interview with Barbara Herrnstein Smith” (June, 2010) [religion-science-and-]
    16. Smith, BH, "Naturalism, Otherwise", The Immanent Frame (June, 2008) [%3E]
    17. Smith, BH, “Science and Religion: Lives and Rocks”, New York Times (January, 2010) [science-and-]  [abs]
    18. Smith, BH, Sewing Up the Mind: The Claims of Evolutionary Psychology, in Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology, edited by Rose, H; Rose, S (2000), pp. 129-143, Jonathan Cape
    19. Smith, BH, "Evaluation" and "Value", in The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, edited by Kelly, M (1998), New York: Oxford UP


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