About Dr. Smith
About Dr. Smith
Cassandra A. Smith (BFA, University of Tulsa; MFA, MA, and PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago) is a Visiting Lecturer in Contemporary Art, with a particular focus on Indigenous Art. Dr. Smith’s area of specialization is Indigenous art, film, and performance, and she situates her research and pedagogy within the disciplinary and methodological frameworks of Indigenous studies, digital humanities, performance studies, gender studies, decolonial museum practices, and critical ethnographic studies.
Dr. Smith strongly believes that engagement with the arts is vital to the development of the analytical skills necessary to the formation of a more just and equitable world, and she encourages students to consider the significance of an arts education to the creation of an informed global citizenry. Her teaching and research engage with themes of materiality, relationality, and performativity, Indigenous epistemologies, and strategies of refusal—concerns that powerfully intersect with Feminist, Queer, Black, and Latinx art histories and practices and contribute to an expanding global and anti-colonial art-historical discourse.
Education
- BFA, Studio Arts, University of Tulsa
- MFA, Studio Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago
- MA, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago
- PhD, Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago
Research and publications
Ongoing and upcoming research
Current research
Dr. Smith’s current research focuses on contemporary First Nations artist Skeena Reece (Tsimshian/Gitksan and Cree). Reece’s multidisciplinary practice includes performance, digital media, writing, and curating, and she has performed and exhibited widely in North America and abroad. Rooted in an often provocative and fiercely uncompromising ethics of care, Reece’s performative and installation-based artworks operate most generatively at sites of epistemic friction, and they form a significant contribution to an evolving decolonial art-historical discourse and emergent dialogue on ethical museum stewardship practices. Dr. Smith investigates the role of parody as a performance strategy in Reece’s time-based art practice. She considers the function of “kincentricity” as a primary structuring element for Reece’s performances, and she asserts the significance of her museum interventions to shift policies toward more ethical practices. Dr. Smith contextualizes Reece’s practice within a family history of sacred performance and political activism, and alongside a cohort of equally irreverent BIPOC performance artists who utilize humor and parody to generate epistemically productive possibilities.
Teaching and advising
Classes taught
ARTH 299: Ancestral to Early Modern Native American Art
ARTH 299: Modern and Contemporary Native American Art
ARTH 299: Textiles and Fiber Arts of the Indigenous Americas
ARTH 361: Contemporary Art
ARTH 491: Indigenous-Centered Museum Practices
ARTH 491: Native American Art: A Disciplinary History
ARTH 491: A History of Indigenous Film
ARTH 550: Gender Performance and Diversity in Indigenous Art and Cultural Contexts
ARTS 595: MFA Graduate Laboratory
ART 595: Professional Practices