About

Caleb Smith is a Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University. His teaching focuses on American literature and the contradictions inherent in American life, such as those between liberty and slavery, secularism and fanaticism, tolerance and exclusion. He offers courses including 'Love and Hate in the South' and seminars on topics like confession, distraction, and historicism. Smith also teaches at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution through the Yale Prison Education Initiative. His primary research interest is the culture of discipline in the United States, exploring stories, images, and fantasies about control exercised over oneself and others. Smith authored 'The Prison and the American Imagination,' tracing the genealogy of the penitentiary system from enlightenment reforms to the prison industrial complex. His second book, 'The Oracle and the Curse,' examines how judges and offenders claim justice by speaking as vessels of higher law, which suppresses personal identity but can enhance ethical and political authority. He edited Austin Reed’s 1858 prison memoir, 'The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict,' the first known prison memoir by an African American writer. His most recent book, 'Thoreau’s Axe: Distraction and Discipline in American Culture,' was published in 2024. Smith is a regular contributor to Critical Inquiry and has written for various venues including n+1, Los Angeles Review of Books, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Public Books. His academic background includes teaching courses on American literature, law and literature, Southern Gothic, and graduate seminars on topics such as confession, historicism, and literary critique of power.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Internal medicine
• Environmental health

Frequent coauthors

• Misty A.W. Hawkins

  10 shared

• Samantha Wallace

  Indiana University School of Medicine

  10 shared

• Alayna P. Tackett

  The Ohio State University

  9 shared

• Natalie G. Keirns

  8 shared

• William R. Lovallo

  Medical Center Hospital

  6 shared

• Madison E. Stout

  Oklahoma State University

  6 shared

• Elizabeth L. McQuaid

  5 shared

• Elise M. Stevens

  University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

  5 shared

Similar researchers at Yale University

• Mark Gersteinh-217
• Liangbing Huh-172
• Akiko Iwasakih-145
• Alan Kazdinh-142
• Douglas L. Rothmanh-125