Kathleen Hewett-Smith
Dean of Undergraduate Studies
An internationalist and institution builder, Dr. Kathleen Hewett-Smith has been deeply engaged in international liberal arts education, program and curriculum development, and educational globalization and advocacy throughout her professional career. Before joining Fulbright, Kathleen held the position of Senior Associate Dean and Chief Academic Officer at Northwestern University in Qatar. Her previous leadership roles include Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the Asian University for Women; Associate Director and Dean at the Institute for International Liberal Education at Bard College; and Head of the Department of English Literatures and Linguistics at the American University of Sharjah. She began her career as a faculty member in the Department of English at the University of Richmond, in Richmond, VA. Dr. Smith received her PhD and MA in Literature from the University of California, Irvine, and her BA in English from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Dr. Smith’s research interests include the aesthetics and politics of the long postcolonial novel as well as the history and development of international liberal arts education and global liberal arts educational models. Her scholarly publications include an edited volume on William Langland’s Piers Plowman as well as various articles and papers on topics ranging from allegorical theory in medieval texts to transnational identities and human rights in South Asian literatures.
An award-winning teacher, Dr. Smith has offered courses in the areas of contemporary global literatures in English, medieval English literature, literary theory, and poetics. She is also interested in the phenomenon of the global megacity and has taught courses on, and in, Mumbai and Shanghai.
