Barbara Herrnstein Smith

Barbara Herrnstein Smith (born 1932) is an American literary critic and theorist, widely recognized for her influential work *Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory*. Currently serving as the Braxton Craven Professor of Comparative Literature and English and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory at Duke University, she also holds a Distinguished Professor of English position at Brown University. Smith's academic journey includes studies at City College of New York, and she earned her Ph.D. from Brandeis University. Her teaching career spans Bennington College and the University of Pennsylvania before she joined Duke and Brown. She has also been a fellow at prestigious institutions like the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Study. Her scholarship delves into critical theory, language, literature, and increasingly, the relationship between science, religion, and human cognition, as evidenced in works like *Scandalous Knowledge* and *Natural Reflections*. Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards and honors, including the Christian Gauss Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts.