Profile

Etienne Smith

• Postdoctoral Research Scholar
  Committee on Global Thought
  Columbia University

Etienne Smith earned his Ph.D in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris in July 2010 and holds a master’s degree in Political Thought from the same university (2003).  Based on a socio-anthropological approach, his research focused on the joking interstices of ethnicities in West Africa (Senegal) and the politics of neo-traditionalism at the intersection of global culturalism and local patriotisms, questionning theories of nationalism, multiculturalism and language policies. His current research interests include intellectual history in francophone West Africa, African politics (Senegal, Mali, Rwanda), and a comparison of controversies on “race”, multiculturalism and postcolonialism in Senegal, France and the United States. Etienne’s recent publications include L’Afrique: histoire et défis (Ellipses, 2009);  « La nationalisation par le bas : la wolofisation au Sénégal » in Raisons Politiques (37, 2010 : 65-77) ; « Merging ethnic histories in Senegal: whose moral community? » in Derek Peterson & Giacomo Macola (eds.), Recasting the Past: History Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa (Ohio University Press, 2009: 213-232).