Dr Karina Smith
Senior Lecturer, College of Arts & Education
Karina's research focuses on postcolonial literature and theatre with a particular focus on the Caribbean and Canada. She is both a literary studies and gender studies scholar whose research analyses issues such as low-paid work, sexuality, globalisation, women's histories as they are represented in literature and other cultural production. She is also interested in migration and diasporic communities, particularly the Caribbean and African diasporas.
Recent publications
Refereed journal articles
Smith, Karina (2013) ‘These things not marked on paper’: affect, creolisation and tomboyism in Joan Anim-Addo’s Janie, Cricketing Lady and Margaret Cezair-Thompson’s The Pirate’s Daughter ’, Feminist Review (Special Issue: Affects and Creolisation) 104: 119-137
Smith, Karina. (2013) ‘Sugar, Sugar’: questioning the sexual division of labour on Jamaican sugar plantations in Sistren’s Sweet Sugar Rage and The Case of Miss Iris Armstrong’, Women’s History Review; 1-16
Smith, Karina (2013) ‘From Politics to Therapy: Thirty-five years of Sistren's theatre and outreach work in Jamaica’, New Theatre Quarterly, 29, 1: 87-97
Refereed chapters
Smith, Karina (2012) ‘The Politics of Collective Organisation: teaching Sistren’s Bellywoman Bangarang and Ida Revolt Inna Jonkonnu Stylee’, MLA Options for Teaching Series: Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literatures, Supriya M. Nair (ed), New York: Modern Language Association Press. Pp. 220-230
Conference presentations
Smith, Karina. (2013) ‘Caribbean Popular Theatre and Canadian Development Funding: community building via North/South ‘partnerships’, Caribbean Studies Association, Grenada, Grenada Grand Beach Resort, Grand Anse, Grenada
Teaching responsibilities
Unit coordinator: Re-presenting Empire: Literature and Postcolonialism
Postgraduate research students and post-doctoral fellows
Completions
3 Honours (principal supervisor), 1 Masters minor thesis (principal supervisor)
Current supervision
2 PhD students (principal supervisor), 2 Honours students (principal supervisor), 2 PhD students (co-supervisor), 1 Masters student (co-supervisor)
Research grants
2008: Victoria University Early Career Research Grants Scheme, totalling $25,000
2010: School of Communication and the Arts, Mid-Career Grants Scheme, totalling $12, 500
2010: International Council for Canadian Studies Research Fellowship, $6,200
2012: Faculty of Arts, Education and Human Development Mid-Career Research Scheme, totalling $20,000
Professional memberships
- Australian Association for Caribbean Studies
- The Caribbean Association of Victoria (CaribVic)
Portfolios
- Culture, Communication & Writing, College of Arts & Education.
Areas of expertise
- Caribbean literature and theatre
- Diaspora
- Popular, community and political theatre
- Postcolonial literature
- Transnational feminisms
