Dr. Smidt’s teaching highlights European History as well as Latin American culture. She also teaches a History and Theory course, which focuses on historiography, professional and methodological concerns in the discipline of history, and the unique nature of what it means to study history from a Christian perspective. Dr. Smidt has received multiple awards, the most recent being a 2013-2014 Geneva College Faculty Development Leave.

Office Phone: 724-847-5221
Email: ajsmidt@geneva.edu

Disciplines/Field of Instruction

• Associate Professor of History and Humanities
• History
• Humanities
• Spanish 

Degrees Received

• Ph.D., 2006, History, The Ohio State University
• M.A., 2001, History, The Ohio State University
• B.A., 1999, History and Political Science (minor in Spanish), Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Courses Taught

• HIS 201 An Introduction to Historical Studies
• HIS 220 European History I: Ancient and Medieval
• HIS 221 European History II: 1500 – 1815
• HIS 222 European History III: 1815 – Present
• HIS 300 Special Surveys: Ancient Greece and Rome
• HIS 300 Special Surveys: The Crusades
• HIS 300 Special Surveys: Colonial Latin America
• HIS 300 Special Surveys: History of Spain
• HIS 401 Selected Themes in History: The De-Christianization of Europe
• HIS 422 History and Theory
• HIS 493 Internship at Beaver Area Heritage Museum
• HUM 103 Invitation to the Humanities
• HUM 203 Making the West
• SPA 315 Latin American Culture
• Guest Lecturer for Church History in the Bible Department

Presentation/Publications

• “New Perspectives on the Enlightenment Across the Spanish Atlantic:, 1680-1815." panel presentation at the January 2017 meeting of the American Historical Association.
• 2013—“Sacred Shrines and Profane Parishes:  Diverging Conceptions of Catholicism in 18th-century Barcelona”
• Panel presentation for “Sacred Spaces and Spirituality in the Long Eighteenth Century” at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Cleveland, OH, April 4-7.
• 2011—“Sacred Shrines and Profane Parishes:  Diverging Conceptions of Catholicism in 18th-century Barcelona” presented at the 125th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in Boston, MA 6-9 January 2011.  Was also the AHA panel coordinator for “Sacred Peripheries in the Early Modern Catholic World” on 7 Jan 2011.
• 2010—“El regalismo borbónico y la importación del galicanismo: El camino político hacia una religión estatal en la España del siglo XVIII” presented at an international colloquium on “Religião e política no mundo português (sécs. XVI-XIX). 250 anos da ruptura diplomática entre Portugal e Roma." in Salvador, Brazil, 8-10 Sept 2010.    
• “Luces por la Fe:  The Cause of Catholic Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Spain”presented at both the annual meeting of the American Catholic Historical Organization in New York City 2-4 January 2009 and at the 40th annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Richmond, VA 25-28 March 2009.
• “Enlightened Absolutism and New Frontiers for Political Authority:  Building towards a State Religion in Eighteenth-Century Spain” presented at “The Limits of Empire in the Early Modern World”, A Conference in Honor of Geoffrey Parker, 26-28 February 2009, The Ohio State University.
• Roundtable participation in “Print Culture in the Hispanic Eighteenth-Century: A Transatlantic Celebration of Thirty Years of Dieciocho.”  A session sponsored by Ibero-American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, organized to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of Dieciocho, the journal devoted to eighteenth-century studies in the Hispanic World and published by the University of Virginia under the editorship of Prof. David Gies.  Held at the 39th annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Portland, Oregon, 27-30 March 2008.
• “Celebrating the Past for the Sake of the Future: Classical Republicanism and Climent′s Pastoral Instruction of 26 March 1769, a Document of Enlightenment within the Catholic Church” presented at the 39th annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies in Portland, Oregon, 27-30 March 2008.
• Review of Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830, by J.H. Elliott, in Atlantic Studies, Vol. 5, Issue 1, 2008.
• “Eighteenth-Century Reflections on Tridentine Reform: Grass-Roots Resistance To Reform Catholicism in the Diocese of Barcelona” presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies in Miami, Florida, 2007.
• “Fiestas and Fervor: Catholic Reform and Enlightenment in Barcelona, 1766-1775” presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Spanishand Portuguese Historical Studies in Lexington, Kentucky, 2006.
• “La teatralidad en la evangelización franciscana: un estudio del uso de performance en la Relación y conçudio de Hernán Gallegos.” Institute for Latin American Studies of the University of Texas at Austin. 2004.
• “Piety and Enlightenment in an Harmonious Relationship: JosepCliment i Avinent, Bishop of Barcelona, 1766-1775,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in Chicago, Illinois, 2002.
• “Piedad e ilustración en relación armónica. Josep Climent i Avinent, obispo de Barcelona, 1766-1775.”  Manuscrits. Revista d'Història Moderna, 2002, núm. 20, pp 91-109.
• “Power, Religiosity, and Sexuality in Medieval Spain.” Book review of Cecilia Lagunas′s Abadesas y Clérigos in The Journal of Women′s History 14, no. 3 (Fall 2002), pp 166-7.
• “El discurso de la hagiografía: la representación de 'santos' y 'mártires' en la Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno de Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala,” presented at the "Eleventh Colloquium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Romance Linguistics" at the University of Texas at Austin, 2001.

Current Projects

• Book manuscript provisionally entitled Full Exposure: Disconnected Catholics and the Drive for Religious Progress in 18^th-Century Spain
• Presenting and participating in conferences such as those of the AHA and ASECS
• Peer reviewer for topics such as the Spanish Enlightenment.  She is bilingual in Spanish and has been on multiple research and archeological trips abroad. 
• Chair for conference panel entitled “Social Studies of Jansenism in 18th-Century France.” For In the Shadow of Enlightenment: Religion, Reform, and Revolution in the Age of Unigenitus. A Conference in Honor of Dale K. Van Kley held in Chicago, IL (October 9-10, 2015).
• Peer-reviewer for journals and presses for books and articles related to topics such as 18th-century Spain, Catholic Enlightenment, or Spanish Enlightenment.

Awards and Distinctions

• 2008—Geneva College Faculty Research Fellowship
• 2006—Geneva College Faculty Summer Research Grant
• 2004-2005—Presidential Fellowship from Ohio State University
• 2004—College of Humanities Summer Research Award, Ohio State University
• 2002-2003, summer 2004—Fulbright Grant for research in Spain
• 2002—John C. Rule Travel Grant for European History Research
• 2002—Ohio State University Office of International Affairs Student Travel Grant
• 2002—Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum; Second-place presentation in the Humanities division for presenting “Piety and Enlightenment in an Harmonious Relationship: Joseph Climent i Avinent, Bishop of Barcelona, 1766-1775”. (Prize money of $200 for excellence in presentation of research.)
• 2001—Tinker Foundation Research Travel Grant
• 2000—Phyllis Krumm Memorial Fellowship (for pre-dissertation research in Spain)
• 1998—selected by the Pew Foundation to participate in the Pew Younger Scholars' Summer Seminar.
• 1998—Van Dellen Memorial Scholarship from the Political Science Department of Calvin College 
• 1995-1999—The Calvin College Presidential Scholarship

Affiliations, e.g., membership in professional organizations, etc.

• 2007-present—American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• 2007-present—Ibero-American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• 2006-present—Society of Pre-Modern Spanish Historians
• 2004-present—American Historical Association
• 2001-present—Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies

Miscellaneous, e.g., hobbies, sports, personal info, etc.

• Language skills: Spanish (fluent reader, writer, and speaker), French (intermediate level), Catalan (intermediate level)
• Field Methods of Archaeology (on-site experience in Israel)