Maya Angela Smith

New Podcast interview is out

I was honored to be interviewed for French Morning US about the translation of Senegal Abroad into French. Find out more information at https://frenchmorning.com/langues-et-identite-avec-maya-smith/

Check out my most recent publications

I’m happy to share that several articles/chapters have come out this year including:

2022. “Inclusive pedagogies in Italian studies: Using sociolinguistic data to decolonise the curriculum.” Italian Studies in Southern Africa, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 204-225. 

2022. “The Senegalese diaspora in Rome: Romanesco and other nonstandard varieties in the face of standard language ideologies.” Italo-Romance Dialects in the Linguistic Repertoires of Immigrants in Italy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169-96.

2022. “Multilingual Texts and Contexts: Inclusive Pedagogies in the French Foreign Language Classroom” in Diversity and Decolonization in French Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 17-32.

Go to my research page for more information.

New exhibit at Herkimer – Ravenna in July and August

Calling Seattle home for the last decade, I made my way here from my hometown of Houston via Zaragoza (Spain), New York, Madrid, Paris, Dakar (Senegal), Rome, Padua (Italy), Oaxaca, Caruaru (Brazil), and Berkeley. As a professor in the French and Italian Studies department at UW who specializes in multilingualism, migration, and identity formation, I spend a lot of time researching, writing, and teaching about how people move through the world and how they narrate their life stories through various languages.

As a visual artist, I try to do something similar by bringing my own life and the lives of those around me into focus through color and contrasts. I find that my academic work and my artistic projects are richer when I do them simultaneously. For that reason, I am grateful to Herkimer – Ravenna for giving me a space to exhibit my work and for being the impetus I needed to paint again after almost three years. This art show is my first solo exhibit in Seattle and follows previous solo shows in New York, Paris, and Oakland.

I rely on my travels, my interactions, and my curiosity to guide me in my creative endeavors. The new pieces displayed here are an homage to my dear friend and college roommate Estefanía, now a professional flamenco dancer. In a moment in time marked by pandemic fatigue, fear, hate, despair, and sadness, I felt a need to create something that could counteract this negativity—in this case, the joy and vitality that Estefanía exudes when she dances and shares her craft with the world.

Visit Herkimer – Ravenna at 5611 University Way NE, Seattle between July 1 – Aug 31, 2022.

Recording of “Media narratives of insurgencies, resistance, and anti-racism in Latin America and the Caribbean”

My first event as Interim Chair of African Studies is now available.

This recording of the roundtable, held on October 28, 2021, features scholars Camila Daniel, Meyby Ugueto-Ponce, and Sharún Gonzales Matute who recently edited a special issue for Conexión. Focusing on collective action in Latin America’s African Diaspora, these scholar-activists explore the numerous ways Black women mobilize resistance against racism in Brazil, Venezuela, and Peru. They were in conversation with Monica Rojas-Stewart, assistant director of African Studies/LACS and founder of the DE CAJóN Project and MÁS – Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle. This discussion was held bilingually (Spanish/English).

In the news: Faculty Spotlight

I’m honored to be featured in the UW Libraries Blog about the work that I do. Check it out here: https://sites.uw.edu/libstrat/2021/10/21/fall-faculty-feature-maya-angela-smith/

Reclaiming Venus

With the support of the Simpson Center’s Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship, I have created an ArcGIS story map that centers around the experiences of Alvenia Bridges in New York City. This is part of a larger memoir project about her life.

To go to the walking tour, click here.

To go to the narration tour, click here.

To go to the accompanying website, which includes transcripts of the audio recordings, click here and here.

Check out my article on sea chanteys

A People’s Song Upon the Waters

Latest article has been published with Yes! Magazine

I am delighted to announce that my most recent article, Enunciating Power: Amanda Gorman and My Battle With Claiming My Voice, has just been published with Yes! Magazine.

Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman (Photo by Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)

“In learning to vanquish her own demons through embodying language, Gorman was also preparing herself to battle ours. As she took the inaugural stage, each enunciation stopped the country in its tracks, her symphonic resonances briefly neutralizing the cacophony of lies and hate spewing from our nation’s center. Her “skinny, Black” body, enlivened by poetic language into a blockade against oppression.”

Senegal Abroad wins the MLA book prize for French and Francophone Studies

Yesterday I was honored to receive the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies at the MLA 2021 virtual conference. Linguistic works are seldom recognized in this conference that is primarily interested in literature. I thank the committee for seeing the value of sociolinguistic, ethnographic work in cultural studies.

As the committee noted, “Maya Angela Smith’s Senegal Abroad: Linguistic Borders, Racial Formations, and Diasporic Imaginaries takes a creative and original sociolinguistic approach to the linguistic practices of Senegalese migrants in Paris, Rome, and New York. The choice of these three sites reveals how specific contexts and communities help shape the dynamics among languages (in particular French, Wolof, Italian, and English) and the formation of national and transnational identities. Through a qualitative ethnographic study of individual experiences of migration, Smith reveals the fascinating and complex landscape of linguistic interactions in the postcolonial francophone world. Developing innovative research and methodology, this work expands the field of francophone studies by including fieldwork and comparative analysis.” You can find out more about the award here.