Dina Smith

Associate Professor of English
Office Location: 328 Howard Hall
515-271-3127
dina.smith@drake.edu

I tend to write and teach from a place of curiosity, with intellectual interests varying from architecture to film, and 1950s Tupperware to 1930s postcards. Undoubtedly, these interests and pedagogical practices emerge in part from my eclectic education: a B.A. in Philosophy and English at Vanderbilt University and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. All of which led to the University of Florida with a Ph.D. in English specializing in Film Studies and Cultural Theory. Along the way, I was Postdoctoral Scholar of Film Studies and Associate Director of the Writing Program at the University of Kentucky.

I am currently working on a book manuscript that explores the image of the trailer/mobile home in American culture in relation to discourses of modernity and U.S. economic shifts (in terms of poverty, housing, and mobility narratives). Additionally, I have published in the fields of art/architecture, cold war culture, film studies, southern literature/culture, Utopian studies, and women's studies.