Summary
Laura Elizabeth Smithers is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno. Her research explores the possible futures created and foreclosed by assessment regimes in undergraduate education. This work connects the fields of higher education and student affairs, poststructural theory, feminist new materialisms and queer theory and incorporates sustained interest in low theory, film and popular culture. Her current research is in the work of affect and ontopower in the uptake of the student success movement and the datafication of higher education. This interest extends to studies of the use of and desire for predictive analytics as well as concepts of impact.
She earned her Ph.D. in Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education from the University of Oregon and has a decade of professional experience in student-athlete academic services as an academic counselor and a learning specialist.
Education
- Ph.D., Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education, University of Oregon, 2018
- M.S.Ed., Educational Psychology, University of Florida, 2006
- B.A. with honors, Government and Politics, University of Maryland, College Park, 2004
- B.A., Economics, University of Maryland, College Park, 2004