Jon Smith
Trained as an Americanist, I work chiefly on the U.S. South from postcolonial, cultural-studies, and psychoanalytic perspectives. I am presently coauthoring The Strange Career of Cornbread Nationalism, a book on the (generally not admirable) ethics and politics of "southern foodways" discourse, with Scott Romine. My last book was on the temporality of North American cultural studies--I tried to articulate a theoretical and methodological space that avoids the pitfalls not only of the hip postmodernity of mainstream "American studies" (think L.A.) but also of the unhip premodernity that continues to characterize much, but not all, mainstream "southern studies" (think front porches and sweet tea). I also continue to be interested in "hemispheric studies," particularly in what Canadianist and progressive Southernist perspectives have to say to each other.From 2005 to 2018, I coedited the New Southern Studies book series for the University of Georgia Press.Though I have English and Australian half-sisters, I grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia. Since 2016, I have lived on Vancouver Island, commuting to work by ferry. In 2017, I proudly became a dual citizen of Canada and the United States. Because I have a very common name, some disambiguation may be in order. I am the Jon Smith who was featured on the "Save the Day" episode of the NPR program This American Life. I am not the Jon Smith who wrote a book on the Flying Spaghetti Monster, nor the one who wrote the "Bloke's Guide to . . . " series, nor the jazz saxophonist, nor the Atlanta crunk musician, nor the Vancouver real estate developer.
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