Caleb Smith
Visiting Assistant Professor of History
Caleb Smith attended Beloit College as an undergraduate, where he became a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Afterward, he spent two years working with AmeriCorps in Seattle, Washington, before pursuing a master’s degree in history at Brandeis University, and later entered Brandeis’ History Ph.D. program. Smith’s current work, titled Pillaging the Vanguard, seeks to understand how Black Chicagoans in the 1970s came to embrace neoliberalism as a public policy preference within the Democratic Party by the 1990s. By centering Chicago, his research explores how the city’s neoliberal shift affected national politics within both political parties and the country for decades to follow. As a political historian, Smith brings these insights into his work with students.
Recent Courses Taught
African American History
Black Metropolis
Research Interests
Twentieth and twenty-first century United States political history with a specific interest in African American politics, neoliberalism, public policy, Black power activism, multi-racial democracy, and voting rights from U.S. Reconstruction in 1865 through the present.
Distinctions
- Huggins-Quarles Award, Organization of American Historians, 2023
Professional Affiliations
- Organization of American Historians
Appointed to the Faculty
2025Educational Background
Ph.D., Brandeis University
B.A., Beloit College
