• ENG 102. Writing II
• ENG 104. Honors Writing II
• ENG 213. Popular Literature
• ENG 220. American Literature I
• ENG 375. The American Novel to 1865
• ENG 379. African American Literature

• Ph.D., English, Notre Dame, 2020
• M.A., English, Notre Dame, 2018
• B.A., English (Literature) and Music, University of North Texas, 2014

• Wissentschaeftlicher Mitarbeiterin (postdoctoral researcher), University of Heidelberg, 2020-2023
• Adjunct Instructor, University of Notre Dame, Fall 2020
• Adjunct Instructor, Holy Cross College, Fall 2020

Selected Publications:

• “James W.C. Pennington, Black Reformed Christianity, and African-American Skepticism.” In James W.C. Pennington: Essays Towards Rediscovering an African-American Intellectual. Ed. Jan Stievermann, Caitlin Smith, and Eddie Glaude Jr.. Oxford University Press, 2025.
• “Introduction.” The Fugitive Blacksmith and Other Essential Writings of James W.C. Pennington. Critical edition. Ed. Jan Stievermann, Caitlin Smith, and Eddie Glaude Jr.. Oxford University Press, 2025.
• “Between Pious Exegesis, Devotional Singing and Prophecy: Cotton Mather’s Scriptural Poetry and Hymns.” Co-authored with Jan Stievermann. Early American Literature. 2025.
• “Measuring Trust in the Fandoms of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss.” Co-authored with Trenton Ford. University of Edinburgh Press, Dis/Trusting the Digital World in Speculative Fiction. 2025
• “Margaret Fuller and the Faithful Female Skeptic.” ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Winter 2022.
• “Readerly Trust and the Art of the Scam in The Confidence Man.” The Blackwell Companion to Herman Melville, ed. Wyn Kelley and Christopher Ohge. 2022.

Selected Presentations:

• “The Disintegration of “America” in the Ruins of the Holy Land: Revisiting Melville's Clarel.” Northeast Modern Language Association. Pittsburgh, PA. 2026.
• "‘The history of nations is the history of individuals:’ James W.C. Pennington’s Vision of Black Self-Culture.” Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers Conference. Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. 2024.
• “The Chronicler, the Coppermind, and Kickstarter: Trust and Authority in New Models of Fantasy Publishing.” Co-presented with Dr. Trenton Ford. Trusting and Distrusting the Digital World in Imaginative Literature: An Interdisciplinary Conference. University College Dublin, Ireland. 2023.
• “Not Warranted: Literary Games of Social Trust in Melville's Late Fiction.” Trust and uncertainty: perspectives from linguistics and literary studies. Biennial Conference of the Swiss Association of University Teachers of English (SAUTE). 2023.
• “Can a Lady be a Skeptic?: Domesticity and Irreligiosity in Antebellum American Literature.” Presented by invitation at the Oxford Early American Seminar. Oxford University, Mansfield College, Rothermere Institute for American Studies. 2022.
• “Skepticism, Pyrrhonism, and Augustine’s Privation Theodicy in Emerson’s Poetics.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association Conference. 2021.
• "James W.C. Pennington and African-American Skepticism.” James W.C. Pennington Conference. Heidelberg University. 2021.

Public Speaking:

• “Editing James W.C. Pennington.” Invited talk at Heidelberg University, with Jan Stievermann and Manisha Sinha. June 29, 2026.
• “New Light on James W.C. Pennington.” Invited talk for Juneteenth – with Jan Stievermann. Congregational Library and Archives, First Congregational Church. Boston, MA. June 19, 2026.
• Panelist on Allyship, Creative Storytelling Panel. Jandoli School of Communications Accessibility, Belonging, and Advocacy Representation Day: Bylines and Sidelines. April 17, 2026.

Caitlin Smith is an assistant professor of early American literature. Her research interests focus on transatlantic religious reform networks, abolitionism, skepticism and freethinking, and trust/distrust. She is the recent co-editor of James W.C. Pennington, a forgotten abolitionist, Black intellectual, theologian, and historian (The Fugitive Blacksmith and Other Essential Writings; Oxford University Press, 2025; James W.C. Pennington: Essays Towards Rediscovering a Great African American Intellectual and Reformer; Oxford University Press, 2025).

Currently, she is revising her dissertation into a book manuscript, Faltering Subjects: Writing Doubt in 19th Century America, which examines the tensions between race, religion, and Romanticism in American autobiography and autofiction from 1810-1876.