Dr. Eric Smith, professor of English at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), received the 2024 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship from the Association of College English Teachers of Alabama (ACETA). This award is given annually to a living, outstanding literary scholar who is from Alabama or has worked primarily in Alabama or has focused mainly on Alabama writers.
“I am delighted and deeply honored to be named this year’s recipient of the Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinguished Scholarship and to join the roster of esteemed awardees, a list that includes such luminaries as Trudier Harris and David Cowart,” Smith says. “As a native of rural northeast Alabama, a first-generation college student, and the first winner to represent The University of Alabama in Huntsville, I am especially pleased.”
Dr. Sean Lane, dean, UAH College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, says, “This award is yet another recognition of Dr. Smith’s outstanding contributions to his scholarly field, the classroom, the university and our local community. His life story and Alabama roots make him a compelling role model to our students. We congratulate him on this well-deserved honor.”
ACETA presented the award to Smith on Feb. 22 during the association’s 76th annual conference, held on the campus of Alabama A&M University.
Smith has taught English at UAH, a part of The University of Alabama System, since 2006. Previously he taught at Athens State University (ASU) and the University of Southern Mississippi. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida, an M.A. from Mississippi State University and a B.A. from ASU.
“Dr. Smith is one of the hardest working academics I know and a verifiable triple threat,” says Dr. Chad Thomas, chair, UAH Department of English. “He has had a phenomenal record as a researcher with the recently published monograph ‘Postcolonial Naturalism’ as the latest accomplishment in a prestigious career.”
Thomas cites Smith’s “exceptional record of service,” including eight years as director of the UAH Humanities Center as well as the soon-to-be director of Justice and Equity Studies.
“The Eugene Current-Garcia Award lets the rest of Alabama know what his colleagues in English at UAH already knew: Eric Smith is a remarkable teacher,” Thomas says. “We are so proud of this accomplishment for that reason, and we join the rest of UAH in celebrating it and him.”
Smith’s lifelong love of books and reading began when he was a kid devouring comics and fantasy and horror novels. As he got older, he took a serious step into the issues explored in modern fiction.
“It was my discovery of James Joyce as a teenager that most moved me and is ultimately responsible for my educational trajectory and career goals,” he says. “I read ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ as a senior in high school, then tried to tackle the daunting ‘Ulysses.’”
Smith was still wrestling with Joyce’s masterwork when he began his graduate studies at Mississippi State. An early “Ulysses” essay he wrote became his M.A. thesis, which eventually morphed into one of his first scholarly publications.
“I attended the University of Florida to study under the late Brandon Kershner, a renowned Joyce scholar. Joyce was inestimably important to my formation as a scholar. From there, I developed interests in other global writers who, like Joyce, confronted the realities of imperialism. I would later add interests in science fiction and utopian studies, which would lead to my first scholarly monograph and the work that followed. But Joyce is definitely where it all started for me.”
