Darryl A. Smith

Associate Professor of Religious Studies
darryl.smith@pomona.edu
Office:
Pearsons Hall
107

(909) 607-3025

With Pomona Since: 2004
Darryl Smith
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  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Darryl Smith specializes in philosophy of religion, African American letters and theology and American pragmatism. He is also a faculty member of The Claremont Colleges Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies.

    Research Interests

    • The Art of Living and Informed Sustainability
    • African Diasporic Thought
    • Signification as Spiritual Practice
    • Pragmatism and Natural Piety
    • Death and Dying in Ancient Africa

    Areas of Expertise

    RELIGION

    • Philosophy of Religion
    • African American Letters and Theology
    • American Pragmatism
    • Theodicy and the Problem of Evil
    • Afrofuturism
    • Deathways in Ancient Egypt and Nubia
  • Work

    Work

    “Handi-/Cappin’ Slaves and Laughter by the Dozens: Divine Dismemberment and Disability Humor in the U.S.” Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, University of Liverpool. October 2013.

    “Souls/Soles of Signs: Tell Totems and the Sphinx Wager,” in Frontiers in Chance: Gaming Research Across the Disciplines, David G. Schwartz, ed. UNLV Gaming Press. Las Vegas. 2013.

    “Scions of Cyclops: Race, Millennial Optics, and the American Cult of the Sun,” in Mis/Representing Evil: Evil in an Interdisciplinary Key, Charlene P. E. Burns, ed. Interdisciplinary Press. Oxford, England. 2009.

    “Droppin’ Science Fiction: Signification and Singularity in the Metapocalypse of Du Bois, Baraka, and Bell,” Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 34, Part 2, DePauw University. July 2007: 201-219.

    “The Pretended,” Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, Sherée R. Thomas, ed., Warner Books, New York. 2000.

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D., Princeton University

    M.A., Princeton University

    M.Phil., University of Cambridge 

    M.Div., Harvard University

    B.A., University of Nevada, Reno

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Critical Inquiry Seminar
    • Independent Research in Religious Studies
    • Interpreting Religious Worlds
    • The Art of Living
    • The Holy Fool: The Comic, the Ugly, and Divine Madness
    • The Problem of Evil: African-American Engagements with(in) Western Thought
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Pomona College, Wig Distinguished Professorship Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2014

    Pomona College, Scholar-in-Residence, 2004-2005

Mailing Address

333 N. College Way
Claremont, CA 91711

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