Pamela H. Smith is a historian of science specializing in attitudes to nature in early modern Europe (1350-1700), with particular attention to craft knowledge and the role of craftspeople in the Scientific Revolution. She is the Seth Low Professor of History, founding director of the Making and Knowing Project, founding director of the Center for Science and Society, and chair of the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience, all at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Smith is serving a two-year term (2016-2018) as president of the
Renaissance Society of America
The Renaissance Society of America (RSA) is an academic association founded in 1954 supporting the study of the Renaissance period, 1300–1650. The RSA brings together scholars from many backgrounds in a wide variety of disciplines from North A ...
.
Smith received a bachelor's degree from the
University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...
, New South Wales, Australia, in 1979 (First Class Honors), and a PhD from
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
, in 1991.
Smith was the Margaret and Edwin F. Hahn Professor in the Social Sciences, and professor of history at
Pomona College
Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...
from 1990-2005 and the director of European Studies at
Claremont Graduate University from 1996–2003.
Awards and fellowships
* Smith was a fellow at
Wissenschaftskolleg, the Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin in 1994–1995.
* In 1995, Smith received the
Pfizer Award
The Pfizer Award is awarded annually by the History of Science Society "in recognition of an outstanding book dealing with the history of science"
Recipients
* 1959 Marie Boas Hall, ''Robert Boyle and Seventeenth-Century Chemistry'' (New Yor ...
for her book ''The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire'' (1994).
* Smith was selected as a John S. Guggenheim Foundation fellow in 1997–1998.
* Smith won the Sidney M. Edelstein international fellowship for research in the history of chemistry in 1997–1998.
* Smith served as
Getty Research Institute
The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". Scholar in 2000–2001.
* In 2003-2004 and 2009–2011, Smith was awarded a New Directions Fellowship by the
Andrew Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...
.
* Her book, ''The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution'' (2004) won the 2005 Leo Gershoy Prize awarded by the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
.
* Smith was a Samuel H. Kress Paired Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the
National Gallery of Art in 2008.
* Smith was a Fellow at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
's Davis Center for Historical Studies in 2009–2010.
Selected publications
Books
*''From Lived Experience to the Written Word: Reconstructing Practical Knowledge in the Early Modern World'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.
*''The Matter of Art: Materials, Practices, Cultural Logics, c. 1250-1750'', co-edited with Christy Anderson,
Anne Dunlop, Manchester University Press, 2015.
*''Ways of Making and Knowing: The Material Culture of Empirical Knowledge'', co-edited with Amy Meyers and Harold J. Cook, Bard Graduate Center/
University of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including ...
, 2014. . Second printing, 2017.
*''Making Knowledge in Early Modern Europe: Practices, Objects, and Texts, 1400-1800'' co-edited with Benjamin Schmidt, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
*''The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
*''Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science and Art in Early Modern Europe'', co-edited with Paula Findlen, New York: Routledge, 2002.
*''The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Paperback edition, 1996; reprint paperback 2016.; reprint paperback 2016. (paperback), (ebook)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Pamela H
Columbia University faculty
Johns Hopkins University alumni
Living people
University of Wollongong alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Pomona College faculty