About Maya Smith

Maya Angela Smith is an associate professor of Francophone studies at the University of Washington, Seattle with a PhD in Romance Languages and Linguistics from UC Berkeley. Her scholarship broadly focuses on the intersection of race, language, and mobility among marginalized groups in the African diaspora, particularly in the postcolonial francophone world, seen most notably in her academic monograph Senegal Abroad: Linguistic Borders, Racial Formations, and Diasporic Imaginaries (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019). Her recent focus on public scholarship allows her to bring her expertise in racial and cultural identity formation to a more general audience interested in cultural and social aspects of the entertainment industry.