Robert O. Smith (he/him/his) is an assistant professor of History with a research focus on the interactions of race, religion, and Indigeneity. Robert is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). He earned his BA from Oklahoma State University and his PhD from Baylor University. He also holds an MDiv and MA in Islamic Studies from Luther Seminary (St. Paul, Minn.).

Robert is a broadly interdisciplinary scholar who deploys the methodological lenses of critical race theory, decolonial theory, and political theology to better understand the historical sources of contemporary political dynamics. His pathbreaking work on the political ideology of Christian Zionism exemplifies this approach: Robert is the author of More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism (Oxford, 2013) and editor, with Göran Gunner, of Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison (Fortress, 2014).

Robert currently has three book projects, co-researched and -written with UIUC rhetoric, writing and Latina/Latino studies professor Aja Y. Martinez: The Origins of Critical Race Theory: The People and Ideas that Created a Movement with New York University Press; and two additional projects under contract with Penn State University Press, and University of California Press—kicking off Cal UP's new series on CRT. Within these projects Robert and Aja draw on mixed methods, ranging from archival, to ethnographic, to literary and rhetorical analysis. These books reframe the histories of CRT's origins in legal studies while making provocative claims concerning CRT's storytelling pedagogy, methodology, and theory. Together, these projects will have far-reaching implications for how CRT is understood within legal history, educational policy, and cultural theory.

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Connect with Robert O. Smith for inquiries about workshops, speaking events, publications, and collaborations on all things race, religion, and Indigeneity.