Ryan Smith

Academic Profile

Academic Background: Ph.D. in History, University of Delaware; M.A. in American Studies, Boston University; B.A. in History, Brigham Young University.

Research Interests: U.S. cultural history, memory, and public history; historic preservation.

Appointments: Professor of History, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Publications:

• Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause (St. Martin’s Press, 2021).
• Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond’s Historic Cemeteries (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020).

Awards: VCU College of Humanities and Sciences Distinguished Scholar Award, 2022.

Additional Contributions: Public lectures on Civil War memory; contributor to National Park Service interpretive programs.