
Contact Information
Biography
Maya Smith completed her undergraduate and master’s degree at New York University in the joint MA/BA program with the Institute of French Studies. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in Romance Languages and Linguistics. Her scholarship broadly focuses on the intersection of racial and linguistic identity formations among marginalized groups in the African diaspora, particularly in the postcolonial francophone world. Her book, Senegal Abroad: Linguistic Borders, Racial Formations, and Diasporic Imaginaries, was published with the University of Wisconsin Press in 2019 and won the Modern Language Association’s French and Francophone Studies book prize. Through a critical examination of language and multilingual practices in qualitative, ethnographic data, Senegal Abroad shows how language is key in understanding the formation of national, transnational, postcolonial, racial, and migrant identities among Senegalese in Paris, Rome, and New York. In addition to the Senegalese Diaspora, Maya is interested in how Blackness is constructed in the French Caribbean and in inclusive language pedagogies.
An upcoming book, Reclaiming Venus: The Many Lives of Alvenia Bridges, will be published on October 29, 2024 with Rising Action Press. Through her personal journey Alvenia has crossed paths with a wide variety of people in the entertainment industry, from long-term working relationships with the Rolling Stones and Roberta Flack to momentary yet extraordinary encounters with Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and Tina Turner. Her story interrogates questions of race and gender in traditionally white male spaces and demonstrates how a memoir about experiences in one’s youthful past can shed insight on how we understand the present as well as help rectify the systemic silencing of black women’s voices in musical history.
Another upcoming book, Ne me quitte pas, will be published in February of 2025 with Duke University Press. A meditation on translation in the most expansive meaning of the word, this book explores how “Ne me quitte pas”—a text, a piece of cultural production written in a specific context, and a work of mass/popular art—travels across languages, geographies, genres, and generations. The book highlights the song’s winding journey from its origin by Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel to Simone’s riveting cover, to Shirley Bassey’s English rendition “If You Go Away,” and to other adaptations, such as Sasha Velour’s drag performance. Maya analyzes these different versions from various dimensions—language, sound, emotion, culture, gender, and race—to underscore the transformative power of songs.
Awards and Honors
Research
Selected Research
Articles
- “Creating a More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive French Foreign Language Classroom” in ADFL Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 12-26, 2022.
- Smith, Maya Angela. "Inclusive pedagogies in Italian studies: Using sociolinguistic data to decolonise the curriculum." Italian Studies in Southern Africa, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 204-225, 2022.
- Smith, Maya Angela. Negotiating Martinican Identity amid French Universalism: Racial and Linguistic Considerations. Francospheres 7(1), pp. 49-69, 2018.
- Smith, Maya Angela. French Heritage Language Learning: a Site of Community Building, Cultural Exploration and Self-reflection. Critical Multilingualism Studies 5(2), pp. 10-38, 2017.
- Smith, Maya Angela. Who is a Legitimate French Speaker?: The Senegalese in Paris and the Crossing of Linguistic and Social Borders. French Cultural Studies 26(3), pp. 317–329, 2015.
- Smith, Maya Angela. Multilingual Practices of Senegalese Immigrants in Rome: Construction of Identities and Negotiation of Boundaries. Italian Culture 33(2), 126-146, 2015.
- Using Interconnected Texts to Highlight Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom. (2013). L2 Journal. 5(2).
- Teaching Intertextuality and Recontextualization through Music. (2012). Berkeley Language Center Newsletter. Vol. 27, no. 2.
Books
- Smith, Maya Angela. Ne me quitte pas. Duke University Press, 2025.
- Bridges, Alvenia, and Maya Angela Smith. Reclaiming Venus: The Many Lives of Alvenia Bridges. Rising Action Press, 2024.
- Smith, Maya Angela. Senegal Abroad: Linguistic borders, racial formations, and diasporic imaginaries. University of Wisconsin Press, 2019.
Book Chapters
- “Multilignualism.” The Oxford Handbook of the French Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 521-545, 2024.
- “Centering Race and Multilingualism in French Linguistics.” Decolonizing Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 139-56, 2024.
- “Navigating Gendered, Racialized, and Migrant Identities: Senegalese Women Artists’ Reflections on Learning Italian in Rome.” Interculturality in Institutions. Springer, pp. 87-115, 2022.
- Smith, Maya Angela. “The Senegalese diaspora in Rome: Romanesco and other nonstandard varieties in the face of standard language ideologies.” Italo-Romance Dialects in the Linguistic Repertoires of Immigrants in Italy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 169-96, 2022.
- Benaglia, Cecilia and Smith, Maya. 2022. “Multilingual Texts and Contexts: Inclusive Pedagogies in the French Foreign Language Classroom” in Diversity and Decolonization in French Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 17-32. Download PDF
- Smith, Maya Angela. “The Journal Rappé: ‘Edutaining’ the Youth through Senegalese Hip-Hop.” Africa Every Day: Fun, Leisure, and Expressive Culture on the Continent, edited by Kemi Balogun, Lisa Gilman, Melissa Graboyes, and Habib Iddrisu. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2019.