About
William (Billy) Smith, Ph.D., was raised in Oklahoma and is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. His scholarship focuses on 17th- and 18th-century North America, the Atlantic world, and religious history. He is author of Benjamin Colman’s Epistolary World, 1688-1754: Networking in the Dissenting Atlantic (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022), part of the “Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World” book series. Smith’s research focuses on the cultural and socio-historical contexts surrounding religious belief, expression, and practice in America. He is co-director of the museum science and management program at UTulsa and holds a courtesy appointment in the history department. He has taught courses in American history, religion, and archival/museum studies at Notre Dame, Grace College and Seminary (Indiana), Oklahoma State University, and The University of Tulsa. He is currently working on a research project related to the history of the Cherokee Hymn book.
As director of the Helmerich Center for American Research (HCAR) at Gilcrease Museum, Smith leads research activities, scholarly programs, and grants at the center and museum. From 2020 to 2023, he directed Gilcrease Museum’s IMLS CARES Act grant focused on the Eddie Faye Gates Tulsa Race Massacre Collection. In service of HCAR’s mission, Smith seeks to bridge the faculty and students at UTulsa to the collections at Gilcrease Museum and the broader research community.
Awards and Honors
- Project Director, Oklahoma Humanities “Public Humanities” Grant, 2023
- Principal Investigator, CARES Act Grant for Museums and Libraries, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), 2020-2023
Education
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
- M.A., University of Notre Dame
- M.A., University of Oklahoma
- B.A., University of Oklahoma
Research interests and areas of expertise
- Early America
- Atlantic world
- Empire
- American religious history
- History of the book