Dr. Kimbra Smith (PhD University of Chicago 2001; AB Princeton University 1992) is a cultural and applied anthropologist.

Dr. Smith's research looks at the complex processes of producing collective memory and developing strategies that enable communities to negotiate around and within oppressive political and economic systems. Smith’s interests include the anthropology of (local) knowledge and the production of authority; the interrelations of history, memory, representation, and power; and the implications of performance, constructions of interpracticality, and interpretive drift for practice theory. Her theoretical research to date has considered the politics of cultural production and political uses of archaeology in the Andes; the production of racialized geographies in Ecuador; the politics of value and the concept of authenticity; and fluidity and the creation of fields of interactive practice as indigenous methodologies of decolonization (see, for example, Practically Invisible: Coastal Ecuador, Tourism, and the Politics of Authenticity [2015, Vanderbilt University Press]). She has worked on the potential for applied community theatre to reveal shared experience and enhance empathy among participants from different backgrounds, using embodied practice to spark interpretive drift and reduce fear-based violence.

Dr. Smith is currently developing digital humanities projects that ensure broader community access to and control over local histories (Revealing Invisible Histories of Colorado Springs; Las interacciones del pueblo manteño a través de los siglos) and that better reflect the value of the liberal arts and sciences and their impact on quality of life (Timmerhaus 2022-23).

• ANTH 3400 Cultural Diversity in the United States
• ANTH 3430 Anthropological Approaches to Globalization
• ANTH 3440 Anthropology of Latin America
• ANTH 3630 Field Experience in Applied Anthropology
• ANTH 3660 Applied Community Studies
• ANTH 3970 History and Theory of Anthropology