I am a current PhD candidate in history at the University of Washington. My dissertation examines economic development and diversification within the Muckleshoot Nation from the 1960s through the early 2000s. My work focuses on exploring the ways in which economic diversification and the expansion of economic development initiatives beyond reservation borders contributes to Muckleshoot nation-building efforts. Prior to my dissertation, I conducted research about how tensions over land played out through ongoing debates between Native peoples and White settlers over wild horse management on Yakama tribal lands.
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Awards & Fellowships
September 2020-21
Scholar Strategy Network Graduate Fellow
Graduate fellow for the Washington chapter of the Scholar Strategy Network (SSN), where I assist with scholar recruitment, outreach, and event planning.
Summer 2019 and 2019
John and Mary Ann Mangels Endowed Fellowship in Public History
Scholarship for graduate students in the department of history studying the Pacific Northwest and are interested in working with museums. As part of my project and tying in with my dissertation work, I assisted the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association (WTBA), located at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington, sort through historic documents and photographs. Home to a small horse racing museum supported by the WTBA, Emerald Downs was purchased in its entirety by the Muckleshoot nation in 2014.
September 2018-2019
"Reimagining the Humanities PhD and Reaching New Publics" Mellon Foundation Fellow
Founded by the Simpson Center for the Humanities and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program prepares UW doctoral students in the humanities to reach new publics by meaningfully connecting them to the diverse, access-oriented institutions of higher education in the Seattle District community colleges, and by supporting the development of both doctoral students’ public projects and publicly engaged graduate seminars taught by UW faculty in the humanities.
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Education
March, 2019
University of Washington, PhD Candidacy
Candidacy achieved in Winter of 2019, with a focus on American Indian history, race, slavery, and U.S. empire, colonial Latin America, and Posthuman studies.
December, 2017
University of Washington, Master of Arts
Master of Arts in U.S. and environmental history. My MA paper focused on the link between settler colonialism, land, and horses on the Colville Indian reservation in central Washington during the early 20th century.
June, 2016
University of Washington, Bachelor of Arts
Graduated Magna Cum Laude with a 3.91 GPA and the Deans Medal in the Humanities. Double majored in History and the Comparative History of Ideas (CHID) with a minor in American Indian Studies.
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Teaching
Spring, 2020-Present
HIST&147: The 1800s, Seattle South College
Quarter long course covers 19th century U.S. history and it significant events. Emphasis includes race and slavery, Indian removal, U.S. expansionism, industrialism, and labor.
Fall 2019-Present
HIST&146: Early U.S. History to 1791, Seattle South College
Quarter long course covers early history of the Americas and the formation of the United States from occupation to the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791. Emphasis includes the collision of cultures, contested ideas about free and unfree labor, early forms of capitalism, the American Revolution and Constitution.
Spring 2019-Present
HIST&214: Pacific Northwest History Seattle Central College
Quarter long courses covers the history of the Pacific Northwest from occupation through the end of the 20th century. Emphasis on Indigenous peoples and treaties, the occupation and expansion of Seattle, Boeing, Hanford, and the Seattle scene in the 1990s. Also touches upon growth and expansion in parts of Canada, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana.
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Select Publications
December, 2018 and June 2019
Jennifer Smith, "Community Colleges in the Climate of Scarcity", Simpson Center Reimagining the Humanities PhD Blog, June 2019.
December, 2016
Jennifer Smith. "All of this Belongs to Us: : Land, Horses, and Indigenous Resistance on the Yakama Indian Reservation, 1900-1950" Ezra's Archives, Winter 2016.
August, 2014