Smith, Dr. Angèle
PhD (University of Massachusetts), MA (McMaster University), BA Honours (University of Toronto)
Biography
I am a social/cultural anthropologist with two primary research fields focusing on Migration, Belonging, Identity, Place, Precarity, and Social Justice. My international project concerns asylum seekers in Ireland. My national project involves young adult mobile tourism workers in Banff, Alberta. Both studies evolve from my research of social landscapes and mapping. I also focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning. I have publications in both these two research areas in both national and international journals (see below).
I am a Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at in the Faculty of Indigenous Studies, Social Sciences and Humanities (FISSSH).
Research and Expertise
In my first research area, I focus on the experience of social and spatial marginalization as well as integration of asylum seekers in present day post-colonial Ireland. Specifically, I am interested in discovering how ideologies of power socially and spatially engineer the discrimination of people seeking asylum in Ireland through their institutionalization in Direct Provision Accommodation centres while they wait for their refugee status. I received a SSHRC Standard Research Grant (2006-2010) to conduct this research initially and have carried on with this longitudinal ethnography for 20 years.
My second research area is closer to home and is concerned with the place-based experiences of young adult mobile tourism workers in Banff, Canada. Like my work in Ireland, this research focuses on mobile peoples in migration and the places they travel to, however this time the emphasis is on the precarity of their work and life in tourism destinations. I was co-investigator on the large SSHRC Partnership Grant “On the Move: Employment-related Geographic Mobility in the Canadian Context” (2012-2019), with my project, “Young Adult Mobile Tourism Workers in Banff National Park, Canada”.
I take seriously my commitment to education of both Undergraduate and Graduate students. I have received two Excellence in Teaching Awards (2003 and 2016), as well as the university’s prestigious Robert W. Tait Implementing Teaching Excellence Award (2020). While Anthropology does not currently have a graduate program, I serve as supervisor on graduate students in Interdisciplinary Studies, Gender Studies, Human Health Sciences, Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, and International Studies. I have supervised 1 Post-Doctoral Fellow (2011-2013), 1 PhD student and 13 Masters students and served on 3 PhD committees and 22 Masters committees. Our department is currently working on establishing a course-based Anthropology Master’s program.
- Anthropology
- Community
- Culture
- History
- Human Rights
- Migration
- English
Selected Publications
Edited books
Angèle Smith and Amy Gazin-Schwartz (eds.) (2008) Landscapes of Clearance: Anthropological and Archaeological Perspectives. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA.
Edited journals
Angèle Smith (2023) Online Reader: “Anthropological Issues and Themes: How Anthropology contributes to relevant issues and questions in society? A Reader By and For Anthropology Students”. Introduction and 8 Co-Authored papers with Capstone Students. University of Northern British Columbia, Library Repository.
Angèle Smith and Nicole Power (eds.) (2021) Special Issue “Youth transitions to education and employment: A mobilities perspective”. International Journal of Children, Youth and Family Studies. Vol. 12, No. 5.1 (April)
Journal articles
Angèle Smith (2021) “Precarity, Agency and UnSustainability: The mobility of young adult tourism workers in Banff National Park, Canada”, International Journal of Children, Youth and Family Studies. Vol. 12, No. 2 (July 2021), p.65-87.
Angèle Smith and Nicole Power (2021) “Introduction for Special Issue: Youth transitions to education and employment: A mobilities perspective”. International Journal of Children, Youth and Family Studies. Vol. 12, No. 2 (July 2021), p.1-11.
Angèle Smith and Jeremy Staveley (2014) “Toward an Ethnography of Mobile Tourist Industry Workers in Banff National Park”. Anthropologica, Journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society. Vol. 56, no. 2. pp. 435-447.
Angèle Smith (2012) A Socially Engaged Archaeology: Spatiality and Governance of Asylum Seekers in Ireland. Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress. Vol. 8 (3): 349-365.
Angèle Smith (2007) “Mapped Landscapes: the politics of metaphor, knowledge and representation on 19th century Irish Ordnance Survey maps” Journal of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Vol. 41(2): 83-93.
Angèle Smith (2004) “Fitting into a New Place: Irish Immigrant Experiences in Shaping a Canadian Landscape” International Journal of Historical Archaeology Vol. 8, 3: 217-230.
Angèle Smith (2002) “Maps” in The Encyclopedia of Historical Archaeology, (ed.) Charles Orser. Routledge, London. pp.326-328.
Angèle Smith (1998) “Landscapes of Power: The Archaeology of 19th Century Irish Ordnance Survey Maps” Archaeological Dialogues (Holland) vol. 5, n. 1, pp. 69-84.
Book chapters
Angèle Smith (2023) Ireland, in Europe: An Encyclopedia of Culture and Society, Thomas Wilson (ed.). ABC-CLIO publishers, Santa Barbara, CA.
Angèle Smith (2014) Neoliberal Landscapes of Migration in Ireland: The Space, Management and Experiences of Asylum Seekers in Movements in Irish Landscapes: Diaspora, Identity, and Globalization at Home and Away. Diane Sabenacio Nititham-Tunney and Rebecca Boyd (eds.). Duke University Press, Durham, NC. pp. 77-90.
Angèle Smith (2013) “Between, Betwixt and Belonging: Negotiating Identity and Place in Asylum Seeker Direct Provision Accommodation Centres” in Migrations: Ireland in a Global World, edited by Mary Gilmartin and Allen White. Manchester University Press, Manchester. pp.164-180.
Angèle Smith (2010) “Mapping as Colonial Process of Removal: Ireland” in Indigenous Archaeologies: A Reader on Decolonization, edited by Margaret Bruchac, Soibhan Hart, Martin H. Wobst, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA. pp.327-331.
Angèle Smith (2009) “A Negotiated Sharing of Space: Globalization, Borders, and Identity of African Asylum Seekers in Ireland” in Globalization and Transnational Migrations: Africa and Africans in the Contemporary Global System. Edited by Akanmu G. Adebayo and Olutayo Adesina, Cambridge Scholars Publishers, Newcastle upon Tyne. pp. 88-105.
Angèle Smith (2008) “The Irish Citizenship Referendum (2004): Motherhood and Belonging in Ireland” in Immigration and Citizenship in Europe and the United States: Anthropological Perspectives. Edited by Deborah Reed-Danahay and Caroline B. Brettell, Rutgers University Press. pp. 60-77.
Angèle Smith (2008) “Landscapes of Clearance: Anthropological and Archaeological Perspectives” in Landscapes of Clearance: Anthropological and Archaeological Perspectives. Edited by Angèle Smith and Amy Gazin-Schwartz, One World Series, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA. pp. 13-24.
Angèle Smith (2008) “Written Off the Map: Cleared Landscapes of Medieval Ireland” in Landscapes of Clearance: Anthropological and Archaeological Perspectives. Edited by Angèle Smith and Amy Gazin-Schwartz, One World Series, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA. pp. 49-70.
Angèle Smith (2002) “Landscapes of Memory: Identity and Meaning in Place Lore of Ireland” in Landscape, Memory and History (eds.) Pam Stewart and Andrew Strathern. Pluto Press, London. pp. 71-88.