“We are certain Adare’s contribution to the University of Iowa and to the field of American literature is exceptional and unmatched. Her research will advance an interdisciplinary approach to American literature and literary history in innovative and new ways.” – Tara Bynum and Andrea Cramer

Hometown: Greenwood, South Carolina

Faculty mentor/advisor: Tara Bynum, PhD, associate professor of English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Degree program and anticipated graduation date: English PhD, Spring 2027

Adare Smith studies how familiar themes and storytelling techniques from Early Modern English literature—works written between the late 15th and early 17th centuries by authors like William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser—appear in the 18th-century Black Atlantic world. The movement of people, ideas, and texts between Africa, Europe, and the Americas shaped this cultural space. Her dissertation, American Requiem: Remembering the 18th Century Black Atlantic, brings overlooked voices to the forefront and explores how revolutionary ideals and cultural tensions influenced the formation of early American identity.

“Researching at Iowa has allowed me to meet and work with faculty and peers across departments and programs,” says Smith. “The interdisciplinary community, like the one I have at Iowa, has provided me with new ways to think about and approach my research and simply given me the space to be excited about my work and the work of others.”

Smith’s work has earned a prestigious Consortium Dissertation Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s McNeil Center for Early American Studies. After graduation, she plans to transform her dissertation into a digital humanities project—an open-access resource for educators and the public.