Ryan A. Smith

Biography

Ryan Anthony Smith is a scholar of United States and African American history. Born and raised in the Arkansas Delta, he is especially interested in policing and the expansion of the carceral state in the rural south. His dissertation, "Punishment for Profit: Labor and Activism in Arkansas's Penitentiary System," uses untouched archival collections to assess the rise and expansion of the Arkansas penitentiary system from its roots in the early 1800s to the present, especially the role(s) that inmates played in protesting and resisting their living and working conditions and how the state harnessed unpaid prison labor to fill its coffers. He is also interested in the aftermaths of slavery and emancipation, and the changing definitions of citizenship across 19th and 20th century America.

Details

Education

• PhD, History, University of Arkansas (expected May 2025)
• Graduate Certificate, African & African American Studies, University of Arkansas (2023)
• M.A., History, Arkansas State University (2017)
• B.A, History, University of Central Arkansas (2008)

Teaching

• AAS 100 - Introduction to African American Studies
• HST 121 - Survey of the History of the United States to 1877

Professional experience

Smith, Ryan Anthony. Review of Let the People See: The Story of Emmett Till, by Elliott Gorn. Journal of Mississippi History 81, no. 3 and no. 4 (Fall/Winter 2019): 256-257.

Smith, Ryan Anthony. Encyclopedia of Arkansas, “Mary Dewees.” Little Rock, Arkansas. Encyclopedia of Arkansas..

Smith, Ryan Anthony. “Laura Conner and the Limits of Prison Reform in 1920s Arkansas,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 77, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 52-63.

Research and professional interests

• United States History
• African Diaspora
• Policing & Prisons
• Slavery, Abolition, & Emancipation
• Race, Democracy, & Citizenship

Awards and honors