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EDUCATION

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2015                   Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania                                                                                                   

                            Africana Studies and Educational Linguistics

                            Dissertation: Black Semiosis: Young Liberian Transnationals Mediating Black Subjectivity                                   and Black Heterogeneity

                            Committee members: John L. Jackson, Jr. (chair), Betsy Rymes (co-chair), H. Samy Alim,                                     Cheikh Babou, Arthur K. Spears

 

2000                   B.S., Cornell University

                            Industrial and Labor Relations

                            Minor, Africana Studies

                            Cornell National Scholar

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ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

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2017 to present        University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Assistant Professor

                                    Department of Anthropology (75%) 

                                    Department of Linguistics (25%) 

                                    Department of African American Studies (0%)

                                    Center for African Studies (0%)

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2015-2017                 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Postdoctoral Research Associate

                                    Department of Anthropology                

                                   

2014-2015                 University of California, Santa Barbara, Dissertation Fellow and Lecturer

                                    Department of Black Studies

 

2014                           University of Pennsylvania, Instructor

                                    Graduate School of Education

 

2013-2014                 Arcadia University, Adjunct Professor

                                    School of Education

 

2011-2014                 Philadelphia University, Adjunct Professor

                                    College of Science, Health and Liberal Arts

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

BOOKS:

Telling Blackness: Young Liberians and the Semiotics of Contemporary Diaspora in an Anti-Black World (under contract with Oxford University Press)

 

 JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Davis, Jenny L. and Krystal A. Smalls. “Dis/possession Afoot: American (Anthropological) Traditions of Anti- Blackness and Coloniality” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 31 , no. 2 (2021): 275-282.

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“Fat, Black, and Ugly: The Semiotic Production of Prodigious Femininities.” Transforming Anthropology 29, no. 1 (2021): 12-28.

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“Fighting Words: Antiblackness and Discursive Violence in an American High School,” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 28, no 3 (2018): 356-383. 

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‘We had lighter tongues’: Making and mediating Gullah/Geechee personhood in the South Carolina Lowcountry,” Language and Communication 32, no. 20 (2012): 147-159.

 

“Flipping the Script: (Re)constructing Personhood through Hip Hop Languaging in a U.S. High School,” Working Papers in Educational Linguistics 25, no. 2 (2010): 35-54.

 

BOOK CHAPTERS:

"Race, Language, and the Body: Towards a Theory of Racial Semiotics” in the Oxford Handbook of Language and Race, edited by H. Samy Alim, Paul Kroskrity, Angela Reyes, and Jonathan Rosa. Oxford University Press. (2020): 233-260.

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“Languages of Liberation: Digital Discourses of Emphatic Blackness” In Language and Social Justice in Practice, edited by Netta Avineri, Robin Conley Riner, Laura Graham, Eric Johnson, and Jonathan Rosa. (2018): 52-60.

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“Racialized Masculinity in Digital Space” in Gender: Space, edited by Aimee Meredith Cox.  Macmillan Reference USA, (2018): 301-315. 

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“The Proverbial Monkey on Our Backs: Exploring the Politics of Belonging Among Transnational African Students in a US High School.” In US Education in a World of Migration, edited by Jill Koyama and Mathangi Subramanian, New York: Routledge, 2014.

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OTHER:

Smalls, Krystal A., Arthur K. Spears and Jonathan Rosa. “Introduction: Language and White Supremacy.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 31, no. 2 (2021): 152-156.

 

“Introduction to the Forum on Language and Anti-Blackness.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 31, no. 2 (2021): 258-260.

 

BOOK REVIEWS:

Review of Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity, by John L. Jackson, Transforming Anthropology 21, no. 2 (2013): 205-207.

 

Review of The Real Hiphop: Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the LA Underground, by Marcyliena Morgan, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 22, no. 3 (2013): 247-250.

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Review of Languages of Global Hip Hop (with Catrice Barrett) , edited by Marina Terkourafi, Anthropology & Education Quarterly 43, no. 4 (2012): 446-448.

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FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, & GRANTS

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2021-2022        Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program – “Diaspora and                                       Border Racial Justice Youth Project” ($24.7K) (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

2021                  Faculty Prize for Research in the Humanities, Humanities Research Institute (University of                               Illinois Urbana- Champaign)   

2018-2019        Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Faculty Fellow (University of Illinois                                           Urbana- Champaign)                   

2014                  Black Studies Dissertation Fellowship (University of California, Santa Barbara)

2013                  Anthropology and Africana Studies Research Assistantship (University of                                                              Pennsylvania)

2013                  Honorable Mention, Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship

2012                  University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Summer                                                  Research Grant

2008-2013        William D. Fontaine Fellowship (University of Pennsylvania)

2008-2012        Carmen T. Middleberg Fellowship (University of Pennsylvania)

2009                  Stephen Peck Award (Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics)

1996-2000        Cornell National Scholar (Cornell University)

 

INVITED TALKS
Apr 2021    “Digital Body-Snatching: TikTok, Utilitarian Anti-Blackness, and the Entextualization of the Black                       Body in Social Media” Brandeis University, Department of Anthropology
Apr 2021    “From Dispossession to Overdetermination: A Contemporary Racial Semiotics” w/ Jonathan                             Rosa. Stanford University,  Department of Anthropology.
Apr 2021     “Water in Our Veins: A Reflection on Saltwater Ontologies of the Gullah/Geechee.”                                             Indiana University, Diverse Environmentalisms Research Team
Apr 2021    “Digital Body Snatching: Tiktok, Utilitarian Anti-Blackness, and the Entextualization of the                                 Feminine Black Body in Social Media” University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology
Nov 2020     Discussant for “Alt-Signaling: White Violence, Military Fantasies, and Racial Stock in Trump’s                              America”  by Janet McIntosh and Norma Mendoza-Denton, University of Chicago and                                       University of Colorado- Boulder, Talking Politics: Anthropologists and Linguists Analyze the                             2020 Election   
Nov 2020    “Utilitarian Anti-Blackness: Body-Snatching, White Pleasure, and the Entextualization of the                             Black Body in Digital Space.” University of Texas - Austin, Department of Anthropology
Oct 2020    “Utilitarian Anti-Blackness: Body-Snatching, White Pleasure, and the Entextualization of the                             Black Body in Digital Space.” Discourse Lab. University of California -Los Angeles, Department                         of Linguistics
Oct 2020     “Utilitarian Anti-Blackness: Body-Snatching, White Pleasure, and the Entextualization of the                              Black Body in Digital Space.”” Colloquium Series White Supremacy and the Making of the                                Modern World University of Pennsylvania, Department of Anthropology                                         May 2020    “Utilitarian Antiblackness: Body-Snatching in Digital Space” Semiotics: Culture in Context                                    Workshop. University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology                 

Sep 2019      “Real Black: Emphatically Black Signs and Fugitive Humanity in Digital Space.” Roman                                          Jakobson Symposium. Harvard University, Department of Anthropology 
May 2019      “White Noise: The Semiotics of Intentional Whiteness & Epistemic Resistance in Digital                                      Space." Northwestern Anthropology Colloquium Series. Northwestern University,                                              Department of Anthropology
Mar 2019     “White Noise: Cancelled Whiteness, Emphatic Blackness, and the Semiotics of Epistemic                                  Resistance in Digital Life.” Plenary Panel. Ethnographic Futures Conference, American                                      Ethnological Society – St. Louis, MO
Feb 2019       “Diaspora Now: Young Liberians and the Semiotics of Transnational Blackness.” Linguistics    
                         Colloquium Series. Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Department of Linguistics.
                 
 

SERVICE TO PROFESSION

Member of the Executive Program Committee for the 2022 Annual Meeting, Seattle, 2021-2022                      American Anthropological Association

 

Guest Editor, 2021 (w/ Arthur Spears and Jonathan Rosa), Special Issue on Language and White Supremacy Journal of Linguistic Anthropology (31:2)                                    

 

Editorial Board Member, 2020-2023

American Anthropologist

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Member of the Wenner Gren Foundation Panel of Reviewers, 2020-2022                                                               Wenner Gren Foundation

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Member of the Steering Committee for the Society for Linguistic Anthropology Fall Conference,  2020  

American Anthropological Association

 

Member of the Advisory Committee for the Center for African Studies, 2019-2020                                             University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Member of Society for Linguistic Anthropology Committee on Language & Social Justice, 2015 – present       American Anthropology Association

 

Member of the Committee on Minority Issues in Anthropology, 2013 – 2017                                                         American Anthropology Association

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Editorial Team Member, 2008 – 2012; 2017 – 2018                                                                                                     Anthropology and Education Quarterly

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External Reviewer (selection)                                                                                                                                           

Signs

American Anthropologist

Journal of Linguistic Anthropology

Anthropology and Education Quarterly

Working Papers in Educational Linguistics

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Co-Editor-in-Chief, 2010 – 2011                                                                                                           

Working Papers in Educational Linguistics

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LANGUAGE VARIETIES 

African American English: fluent   

Spanish: moderate proficiency                  

Gullah/Geechee: high proficiency                

Kiswahili: novice

 

OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE

Classroom Teacher, Tenth Grade English (Special Education), 2007-2008                                                               Henrico County, VA

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Program Coordinator, Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, 2005-2007                                                                             Brooklyn, New York

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Outreach & Communications Assistant, The Parent-Child Home Program, 2003-2006                                         Port Washington, NY

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Legislative Assistant, Education/Social Services: US Congress, Rep. José E. Serrano (NY16), 2001-2003             Washington, D.C.