Barbara Herrnstein Smith

Barbara Herrnstein Smith (born 1932) is an American literary critic and theorist, best known for her work Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. She is currently the Braxton Craven Professor of Comparative Literature and English and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory at Duke University, and also Distinguished Professor of English at Brown University.

Not to be confused with Barbara Smith.
Barbara Herrnstein Smith
Born1932 (age 88–89)
Bronx, New York
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCity College of New York, Harvard, Brandeis University
Period1968–
Notable awards

Biography

Smith briefly studied at City College of New York,[1] studying biology, experimental psychology, and philosophy. She then earned her B.A. (summa cum laude) in 1954 and her Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Brandeis University reports Smith earned her doctorate in 1965,[2] and Duke University reports she earned her doctorate in 1963.[3]

From 1961 to 1973, Smith taught at Bennington College. She accepted a faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania in 1973. In 1987 she joined the Duke University faculty, and also joined Brown University in 2003.

Smith has also occupied numerous short-term and honorary posts. She was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Scholarship and work

Smith is a well-known writer, most particularly for her 1983 work on critical theory, Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory. In this work, she attempts to situate the various liberal, conservative, and other views of "values" within her "metametatheory" of contingencies, an economics-influenced theoretical approach. She uses her theory to address literary, aesthetic, and other types of values, attempting to discern whether any objective standards may be applied.

Other works include Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End, Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy, and an edition of Shakespeare's sonnets; she has published numerous books and articles on language, literature, and critical theory.

In recent years she has been doing considerable work on science and the humanities, including Scandalous Knowledge and her 2006 Terry lectures at Yale, Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion.

Published works
  • Discussion of Shakespeare's Sonnets (ed.) (1964)[4] ISBN 0-669-22012-4[5]
  • Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End (1968) ISBN 0-226-76343-9
  • Shakespeare's Sonnets (ed.) (1969) ISBN 0-685-06702-5
  • On the Margins of Discourse: The Relation of Literature to Language (1978) ISBN 0-226-76452-4
  • Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory (1988) ISBN 0-674-16785-6
  • The Politics of Liberal Education (ed., with Darryl J. Gless) (1991) ISBN 0-8223-1199-2
  • Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory (ed., with Arkady Plotnitsky) (1997) ISBN 0-8223-1863-6
  • Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy (1997) ISBN 0-674-06492-5
  • Scandalous Knowledge: Science, Truth and the Human (2006) ISBN 0-8223-3848-3
  • Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion (Terry Lectures) (2010) ISBN 0-300-14034-7
  • Practicing Relativism in the Anthropocene: On Science, Belief, and the Humanities (2018) ISBN 1-7854-2070-4

Awards and recognitions

References
  1. Klingenstein, Suzanne (1 March 2009). "Literature Scholars in the United States". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  2. "Distinguished Alumni". Department of English. Brandeis University. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  3. "Barbara H. Smith". Program in Literature: People. Duke University. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  4. "Publications of Barbara H. Smith". Program in Literature: People. Duke University. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  5. "Discussions of Shakespeare's Sonnets". Biblio.com. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  6. "The Christian Gauss Award winner". The Phi Beta Kappa Society. Archived from the original on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  7. "All Fellows". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  8. "CASBS Fellows". CASBS at Stanford University. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  9. "Smith, Barbara Herrnstein". Institute for Advanced Study. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  10. "The One Hundred Twenty-Four Presidents". MLA. The Modern Language Association. 17 January 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  11. "Best Special Issue". The Council of Editors of Learned Journals. Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  12. "Fellows of the National Humanities Center, P–Z". National Humanities Center. July 2013. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  13. "Past Fellows". the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies. Princeton University. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  14. "Barbara Herrnstein Smith". The Bellagio Center. The Rockefeller Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  15. "Chapter S" (PDF). Book of Members. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  16. "Fellows". AAAS MemberCentral. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Archived from the original on 27 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  17. "Barbara Herrnstein Smith 2006". Dwight H. Terry Lectureship | Past Lectureships. Yale University. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.

Further reading
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