R. Drew Smith, PhD (Host, 2010)
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R. Drew Smith, PhD (Host, 2010)'s details
- Country: USA
- Region: Atlanta, Georgia
- Studies: Scholar-in-Residence
- University: Morehouse College
- Email: rsmith@morehouse.edu
R. Drew Smith is the recently appointed Professor of Urban Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and also serves as scholar-in-residence at the Leadership Center at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and as Co-Convener of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Religion and Race. Both a social scientist and clergyman, Smith has initiated and directed a number of projects related to religion and public life, including the Public Influences of African-American Churches Project and the Faith Communities and Urban Families Project. These Projects have collected research data on political involvements, community development activities, and outreach ministries of African-American churches in numerous parts of the United States. The Projects have also convened seminars, conferences, and roundtables that have brought clergy, policy makers, and community leaders together to discuss matters pertaining to the church’s public mission and ministry.
Smith has taught at Indiana University, Butler University, Emory University, Case Western Reserve University, and New York Theological Seminary. He has served as Director of the Center for the Church and the Black Experience at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Illinois, and has also served as a Research Fellow at the Virginia Humanities Foundation/ University of Virginia and with the University of South Africa. He has been actively involved in international community development and youth leadership development, initially as an executive staff person at Operation Crossroads Africa during the 1980s. He has traveled widely in Africa and Latin America, with his Africa involvements taking him to 17 African countries since the mid-1980s. Moreover, he served in 2005 as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and in 2009 as a Fulbright Senior Specialist at Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Cameroon. He has also lectured in many international venues, including Brazil, Ghana, and Lesotho, and he lectured in Israel in spring of 2007 as part of the U.S. State Department’s Speakers Bureau. In addition, as a Baptist clergyman, he has ministered in a number of parish, prison, and campus ministry contexts.
Smith earned his bachelor’s from Indiana University, M.Div. from Yale Divinity School, and M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He has published widely on religion and public life, having written numerous articles and chapters, and edited five books including New Day Begun: African American Churches and Civic Culture in Post-Civil Rights America (Duke University Press, 2003); Long March Ahead: African American Churches and Public Policy in Post-Civil Rights America (Duke University Press, 2004); and Freedom’s Distant Shores: American Protestants and Post-Colonial Alliances with Africa (Baylor University Press, 2006). Most recently, he has edited From Every Mountainside: Black Churches and the Broad Terrain of Civil Rights, which is to be published by State University Press of New York in Spring, 2013. He is also currently writing a book on contemporary black clergy activism, which is under contract with Columbia University Press.
R. Drew Smith Select Publications
R. Drew Smith (editor), From Every Mountainside: Black Churches and the Broad Terrain of Civil Rights, (State University of New York Press, 2013)
R. Drew Smith (guest editor), Special issue of Faith and International Affairs, “Religion and African American Leadership in Global Volunteerism,” (Spring 2012); http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfia20/10/1
R. Drew Smith (guest editor), Special issue of Faith and International Affairs, “African Church Responses to African Conflict,” (Spring 2010)http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfia20/8/1
R. Drew Smith (guest editor), Special issue of Faith and International Affairs, “Black Clergy and U.S. Policy in the Middle East and North Africa,” (Spring 2008) http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfia20/6/1
R. Drew Smith, Beyond the Boundaries: Low-Income Residents, Faith-Based Organizations, and Neighborhood Coalition Building,” Baltimore: Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2003; http://www.morehouse.edu/centers/leadershipcenter/fcuf/reports/BTBReport2003.pdf 
R. Drew Smith and Fredrick C. Harris (editors), Black Churches and Local Politics: Clergy Influence, Organizational Partnerships, and Civic Empowerment , (Rowman & Littlefield Press, 2005)
R. Drew Smith (editor), New Day Begun: Black Churches and Civic Culture in Post-Civil Rights America, (Duke University Press, 2003)