Matthew Smith earned his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, where his research focused on avant-garde poetry and translation studies. He sees himself as a generalist, with an ever-evolving set of interests across French and Francophone studies and applied linguistics. Before joining University of Chicago in 2025, he was Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Northern Illinois University where he taught a range of courses on French and Francophone culture.
An active translator, he has brought a dozen French-language works into English, spanning prose fiction, experimental poetry, and critical theory. In his teaching, he draws on ecological and sociocultural approaches to language learning and, together with his colleagues, is currently adapting and developing an open educational resource (OER) curriculum for first-year French. In all his classes he encourages experimentation, creativity, critical thinking, and student autonomy.
Selected Publications
Book Translations (Nonfiction/Critical Theory):
- Feminism in Africa: Gender, Knowledge and Resistance — Fatou Sow (Polity Press, forthcoming 2026).
- African Philosophies — Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux (Polity Press, 2025). Translated from the French, Philosophies africaines.
- We, the Decolonized — Hélé Béji (Polity Press, 2025). Translated from the French, Nous, décolonisés.
- Darkening Blackness — Norman Ajari (Polity Press, 2024). Translated from the French, Noirceur.
- Dignity or Death: Politics of Blackness and the Critique of European Philosophy — Norman Ajari (Polity Press, 2023). Translated from the French, La Dignité ou la mort.
- Colonial Trauma — Karima Lazali (Polity Press, 2021). Translated from the French, Le Trauma colonial.
- Resolutely Black — Aimé Césaire & Françoise Vergès (Polity Press, 2020). Translated from the French, Nègre je suis, nègre je resterai.
Book Translations (Poetry):
- Sleep preceded by Saying Poetry — Jacques Roubaud (La Presse, 2019). Translated from the French, Dors, précédé de Dire la poésie.
- Seven String Quartets— Frédéric Forte (La Presse, 2014). Translated from the French, “Sept quatuors à cordes,” in Discographie.
Book Translations (Fiction):
- The Truth about Marie — Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Dalkey Archive Press, 2011). Translated from the French, La Vérité sur Marie.
- Running Away— Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Dalkey Archive Press, 2009). Translated from the French, Fuir.
- Camera— Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Dalkey Archive Press, 2008). Translated from the French, L’Appareil-photo.
Articles:
- “Does Rimbaud Get Ashbery? Repurposing the Equivalence Paradigm,” Romantic Review Vol. 115, no. 1, 2024. doi.org/10.1215/00358118-11012021
- “To France and Back: New Circuits in American Poetry.” Postmodern Culture Vol. 25 no. 3, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1353/pmc.2015.0011
Book Reviews:
- “Impostors: Literary Hoaxes and Cultural Authenticity. By Christopher L. Miller.”
- Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 57 no. 2, 2020. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/774129.
- “Rachel Gavin, News of War: Civilian Poetry 1936-1945.” SubStance, November, 2019. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sub.2019.0030.
Interviews:
- Matthew B. Smith & Frédéric Forte, “‘Une évolution constante des dynamiques’: un entretien avec Frédéric Forte.” Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Vol. 25 no. 5, 2022, pp. 657-660. https://doi.org/10.1080/17409292.2021.2003571
Recent Courses in RLL
- FREN 10100 Beginning Elementary French I (Autumn 2025)
- FREN 10200 Beginning Elementary French II (Winter 2026)
- FREN 10300 Beginning Elementary French III (Spring 2026)