R. Allen Smith

R. Allen Smith teaches World History, World Cultures and U.S. History in the UNCSA High School Academic Program. Smith instructs his classes by combining lecture and group discussion, and infuses his courses with outside readings (primary and secondary sources), films, artwork and literary voices that bridge the past and present.

As a social studies educator, Smith prioritizes building strong rapport with students and designing clear, accessible course structures that push students to take ownership of their learning within rigorous coursework. In recent years, he has pioneered a structured, phased approach to integrating AI tools into the research process, helping students engage critically with emerging technologies while maintaining depth of inquiry.

As a social studies educator, I pride myself on building a strong rapport with my students; this allows students to trust themselves and begin to take ownership of their own learning experience as I push them to succeed in a rigorous coursework.

“Authors like Tommy Orange, Carol Anderson, Joy Harjo, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Elie Wiesel — among many others — help my students understand how history lives in the present,” Smith says. “I was fortunate enough to meet both Tommy Orange and Dr. Carol Anderson at various conferences. These experiences have helped to infuse my use of these texts in my classroom.”

Credentials

• Completed doctoral dissertation: Liturgy: A Foucauldian Genealogy on the Discourse of Moral Ideologies Within Educational Assessment, Appalachian State University, 2025.
• Nominated for the Naylor Outstanding Dissertation Award, Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University — nominated by dissertation chair Dr. Alecia Jackson, Professor of Leadership and Educational Studies. The dissertation, an interdisciplinary Foucauldian genealogy weaving together governmental policy, history, religious imagery, musical concepts, narrative poetics, and literature, was described as “theoretically mature, methodologically experimental, and conceptually innovative.”
• Chapter forthcoming: “Standardized Testing as a Moral Technology: A Genealogy of Educational Discipline in America,” Bloomsbury Handbook of Foucault and Education.
• Foreword contributor for an upcoming book by Dr. Chris Osmond, Appalachian State University.
• Accepted into the Graduate Certificate Program in Multicultural and Transnational Literatures, East Carolina University (beginning Fall 2026).
• Secretary, Campus Development Committee, UNCSA.
• High School representative, UNCSA Evaluation Committee (founding member, 4+ years of service).
• Presentations over multiple years for UNCSA’s Faculty Enrichment Day.
• Presentation of coursework on decolonizing educational research, Appalachian State University's Doctoral Symposium, November 2020.
• Volunteer panel moderator and community book discussion leader for Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC since 2019.
• AP World History reader, curriculum outliner/developer, and teacher mentor.
• Full time social studies and AP World History instructor and student government advisor at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, N.C., 2004-13.

Career Highlights

• Co-created and continues to collaborate with colleague Doug Bohannon, UNCSA High School English Teacher, on a cross-disciplinary 9th grade project experience.
• Afforded the opportunity to help build a strong high school student government program and participate in ongoing student advocacy on the UNCSA campus.
• Over 10 years of international educational travel experience with students in Europe, Asia Minor, Central America and the South Pacific.
• Participated as an educational tour guide with Envision for student groups within the United States: Washington, D.C.; Harpers Ferry, W.V. and Baltimore, M.D.

Awards, Recognitions and Honors

• Nominated for the Naylor Outstanding Dissertation Award, Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University, 2025 — nominated by dissertation chair Dr. Alecia Jackson, Professor of Leadership and Educational Studies.
• UNCSA Excellence in Teaching Award for 2021-22 and nominee for the UNC Board of Governors Award.
• Scholarship from Appalachian State University in recognition of work in the Reich College of Education.
• Recognition by UNCSA Chancellor Dr. James Moeser at a UNCSA Faculty Council Meeting in 2013, who commented that Smith's 9th grade world history course was “one of the best classes I have ever attended."
• Spartan Excellence Award, Mount Tabor High School, 2012.

Organizations

• American Educational Research Association.
• American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Foundation for Curriculum Theory.
• World History Association.
• American Historical Association.
• National Consortium for Teaching about Asia.
• North Carolina Association of Educators, AR/Building rep for UNCSA - HS Program.
• Aperture Cinema, hosted and curated an international film series (Summer 2019).
• Bookmarks Festival of Books & Authors, moderated book panels with various authors:
  • "Real Life Reimagined: Historical Fiction," featuring Téa Obreht, Michael Parker and Mary Doria Russell (Fall 2019).
  • “Hell of a Panel, ” featuring Brando Skyhorse, R. Eric Thomas, and Jason Mott (Fall 2023).
• Bookmarks Book Club: led book club discussion on Tommy Orange's There, There after meeting with and hearing Orange speak at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE). Other book club and community discussions have included Jason Reynolds YA version of Stamped and an author discussion with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah to discuss his book Chain Gang All-Stars.
• Bookmarks Panel: “Southern Identity, Memory, and Cultural History,” featuring John T. Edge and Jeremy B. Jones. (Fall 2025)