Biography

​Earl Smith, PhD, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Sociology at Wake Forest University, and is currently teaching classes in Sociology, African and African American Studies, and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Delaware.  Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut.  His teaching and research focus on the sociology of sport, social stratification, criminal justice, and race.  He is the author of 12 books, including his most recent book, Gender, Power and Violence (2019), and Policing Black Bodies (2018) as well as dozens of book chapters and peer-reviewed articles.  He has written several books on the impact of social inequality on Black families.  His book Race, Sport and the American Dream, which has been published in three editions, remains the only book on the market that examines structural racism in the Sport World. On a regular basis he is consulted as an expert by the New York Times, USA Today, and a variety of other news outlets.  He teaches courses on social stratification, race and ethnicity, social problems, race and gender, and sexuality and sports.

Degrees

B.A.  State University of New York

M.A.  University of Connecticut (Sociology)

Ph.D.  University of Connecticut (Sociology & Social Anthropology)

Books and Book Chapters

• Hattery, Angela J. and Earl Smith.  2019. Gender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today.  Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 
• Hattery, Angela J. and Earl Smith.  (2018). Policing the Black Body: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. 
• Hattery, Angela J. and Earl Smith.  (3rd Edition 2019/2nd Edition 2016/2012).The Social Dynamics of Family Violence. 2nd Edition. Boulder, CO:  Westview Press. 3rd Edition: New York: Routledge.

Journal Articles

• Smith, Earl and Angela J. Hattery. 2020. "Bad Boy for Life:  Hip-Hop Music, Race and Sport." Sociology of Sport Journal. 37(3).
•  Smith, Earl and Angela J. Hattery. (2011). "Race, Wrongful Conviction & Exoneration." Journal of African American Studies.  15(1):74-94. 
• Smith, Earl and Angela J. Hattery. (2010). "African American Men and the Prison Industrial Complex." Western Journal of Black Studies: 34(4): 387-398. 
• Smith, Earl and Angela J. Hattery. (2010). Cultural Contradictions in the South. Mississippi Quarterly 63(1):  145-166.

Current Projects

​Along with Dr. Angela J. Hattery, Dr. Smith is currently completing work on a three-year project examining the living and working conditions in solitary confinement units in a state prison system. The project involved nearly 100 interviews with inmates and staff living and working in solitary confinement as well as ethnographic observations.  The book, tentatively entitled Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement is under contract with Rutgers University Press.