REV. DR. R. DREW SMITH

Tuesday - October 2, 2007
University Center, Room 364 - 6:00pm
Reception starts at 5:30pm
Free and open to the public

R. Drew Smith is a SAGES Fellow and Faculty-in-Residence at Case Western Reserve University. He recently served as Scholar-in-Residence at the Leadership Center at Morehouse College. In that capacity, he initiated and directed a number of projects related to religion and public life, including the Public Influences of African-American Churches Project and the Faith Communities and Urban Families Project. Dr. Smith has also served on the advisory boards of other academic and nongovernmental organizations concerned with religion and public life, including the Pew Partnership for Civic Change.

Dr. Smith is a political scientist who has taught at Indiana University, and New York Theological Seminary. Dr. Smith has bee actively involved in international community development and youth leadership development. He has traveled widely in Africa and Latin American, with his Africa involvements taking him to twenty African countries since the mid-1980’s. Most recently, he served as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa during the Spring and Summer of 2005. He has also lectured in many international venues, including Brazil, and in Israel in late Spring of 2007 as part of the U.S. State Department’s Speakers Bureau. In addition, Dr. Smith is a Baptist clergyman, and has ministered in a number of parish and prison chaplaincy contexts.

Dr. Smith earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Indiana University, a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. He has published widely on religion and public life; having written numerous articles and chapters, and edited various books including New Day Begun: African American Churches and Civic Culture in Post-Civil Rights America (Duke University Press, 2003); Long March Ahead: African American Churches and Public Policy in Post-Civil Rights America (Duke University Press, 2004); Freedom’s Distant Shores: American Protestants and Post-Colonial Alliances with Africa (Baylor University Press, 2006), and Black Churches and Local Politics: Clergy Influence, Organizational Partnerships, and Civic Empowerment (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005) which he co-edited.

Made possible with support from the following: Cleveland State University’s Department of History, Religious Studies Department, Black Studies Program, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Fall 2007 Learning Communities, and the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD). Promotional support provided by Cleveland Public Library. (List current as of 9/707)

For more information, call 216.523.7182 or email Dr Regennia N. Williams: r.williams@csuohio.edu