Dr. Christi Smith, PhD

Dr. Christi Smith is a sociologist focused on policy research pertaining to refugee resettlement and inclusion. In addition to expertise on international comparative refugee and resettlement policy (particularly within the EU), she is also researching climate migration in the Pacific and policy related to the US relationship with the Marshall Islands.

Dr. Smith has also conducted substantial historical research (including her first book) on higher education policy. Given the recent Supreme Court decisions, her book speaks to issues of retrenchment in civil rights advancements. Dr. Smith examined racial patterning in elite higher education and the development of an organisation field of category-specific education policy, with attention to race, gender and class-based policies. In this line of work, Smith examined philanthropic and civic investment in integrating higher education. Her first book, Reparation and Reconciliation: The Rise and Fall of Integrated Higher Education (UNC Press), was reviewed by the American Journal of Sociology, the American Journal of History, and Contemporary Sociology, among others. Her research explores the relationship politics and organisations shape processes of social inclusion and exclusion, both historically and in international comparison. Smith's research has been published in several academic journals, including the Research in the Sociology of Organizations, DuBois Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and Race and Justice.

Dr. Smith has been a visiting scholar in the Dept. of Political Science at the University of Aarhus (Denmark) and The Mannheim Centre for European Social Research at the University of Mannheim (Germany), and the University of Konstanz (Germany). She previously held academic appointments at The Ohio State University (Sociology), Oberlin College (Sociology) and Washington University in St. Louis (Global Studies). Smith has consulted for various documentaries and provided on-camera expertise for a national cable channel (TLC).

She graduated from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and earned a Masters in Education Policy and PhD in Sociology at Indiana University. Her research has been funded by Spencer Foundation for Education Research, the Landesstiftung of Baden-Württemberg (Germany) and other sources.

Sub-specialties:

Refugee Resettlement
US/ Marshall Islands Policy
Migration/ Europe
Civil Society Efforts in Refugee and Migrant Resettlement
Refugee Education and Work
Social and Cultural Impact/ Refugees and Migration in Europe
Germany, Sweden, Denmark

Higher Education Policy
Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education
Civil Rights Retrenchment
Philanthropy in Higher Education