Valerie Smith | |
|---|---|
| 15th President of Swarthmore College | |
| Assumed office July 1, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Rebecca Chopp |
| Dean of the College of Princeton University | |
| In office July 1, 2011 – June 1, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Nancy Weiss Malkiel |
| Succeeded by | Jill Dolan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 19, 1956 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Bates College (BA) University of Virginia (MA, PhD) |
| Academic background | |
| Thesis | "The Singer in One’s Soul": Storytelling in the Fiction of James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison (1982) |
| Doctoral advisor | Raymond Nelson |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | African-American studies |
| Institutions | |
Valerie Smith (born February 19, 1956)[1] is an American academic administrator, professor, and scholar of African-American literature and culture. She is the 15th and current president of Swarthmore College.
She taught at Princeton University from 1980 to 1989 and at University of California, Los Angeles from 1989 to 2000. In 2000, Smith returned to Princeton as the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature and director of the program in African American Studies. From 2006 to 2009, Smith served as the founding director of Princeton's interdisciplinary Center for African American Studies. In July 2011, Princeton’s then-president Shirley Tilghman appointed Smith Dean of the College at Princeton.
Smith left Princeton after a 24-year tenure to assume the presidency of Swarthmore College in July 2015; she was inaugurated in October.