Araby Smyth
Biography
I am a feminist economic and urban geographer. Prior to ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½, I worked as a Post-Doctoral Visitor on the GenUrb Project at the City Institute of York University in Toronto. My research on debt, policing, remittance economies, and decolonizing knowledge production has been funded by the Antipode Foundation, National Science Foundation (USA), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Society of Woman Geographers. I have published in journals such as Antipode, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Geoforum, and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. I am co-Editor-in-Chief of ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies.
Publications
Smyth A, Adeniyi-Ogunyankin G, Datta A, Basu S, de Souza K, Ip P T T, Marcus J, Razavi N S, Peake L. 2026. Women's Embodied Experiences of Debt in the Urban Global South. Feminist Economics 32(2): 329-352. ;
Peake L, Katsikana M, Adeniyi-Ogunyankin G, Datta A, Basu S, de Souza K, Ip P T T, Marcus J, Ponce C, Razavi N S, Smyth A and Yousuf B. 2024. Urban Geography in Crisis Times: Insights from a Feminist Project. Geographica Helvetica 79(3): 283-288.
Smyth A. 2024. 'Feminist Approaches to Debt in the City.' In Peake L, Adeniyi-Ogunyankin G and Datta A (eds) Handbook on Gender and Cities (pp 274-283). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Peake L, Razavi N S and Smyth A (eds). 2024. 'Doing Feminist Urban Research: Insights from the GenUrb Project.' London: Routledge.
Smyth A. 2024. 'Making Futures in Oaxaca: Remittances in the Diverse Economies of Social Reproduction.' Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 49(2): 1-13. ;
Smyth A. 2023. 'Proceeding through Colonial Past-presents in Fieldwork: Methodological Lessons on Accountability, Refusal, and Autonomy.' Antipode 55(1): 268-285.
Smyth A. 2022. 'Challenging the Financialization of Remittances Agenda through Indigenous Women’s Practices in Oaxaca.' Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 54(4): 761-778. ;
Linz J and Smyth A. 2021. 'The Feminist Coven at University of Kentucky.' In Gökarıksel B, Hawkins M, Neubert C and Smith S (eds) Feminist Geography Unbound: Intimacy, Territory, and Embodied Power (pp 263-267). Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.
Smyth A, Linz J and Hudson L. 2020. A Feminist Coven in the University. Gender, Place & Culture 27(6): 854-880. ;
Smyth A. 2017. 'Re-Reading Remittances through Solidarity: Mexican Hometown Associations in New York City.' Geoforum 85 (October): 12–19. ;
Education
- 2021 Doctor of Philosophy in Geography, University of Kentucky
- 2015 Masters of Arts in Geography, Hunter College of the City University of New York
- 2015 Certificate of Geographic Information Science, Hunter College of the City University of New York
- 2006 Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Hunter College of the City University of New York
Teaching
- GENV 1201 The Human Environment
- GENV 2221 The Developing World
- GENV 3221 Transportation Geography
- GENV 3701 Research Methods in Human Geography and Environment
- GENV 3831 Geography of Global Cities
- GENV 3991 Geographies of Finance
Research
My research agenda responds to the global challenge of building more inclusive economies by examining how processes of patriarchal racial capitalism, particularly in the form of financialization, impact everyday life and shifting global hierarchies of power. To do this I have conducted collaborative, qualitative research on debt in Bolivia, China, Guyana, India, and Nigeria, remittances in Mexico, and policing in Canada and the USA. All of my research is informed by and contributes to anti-colonial frameworks in feminist, Black, Latin American, and Indigenous studies, economic and urban geography, and political economy. I am currently researching and writing about financial services in Mexico and the Interoceanic Corridor in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. More information about my research is available at and ;
I am currently recruiting an undergraduate research assistant to work on a mapping project using QGIS and am always interested in supervising student projects about debt, development, housing, labor, migration, remittances, social movements, and transportation, though that's not all! If you are a student interested in working with me as a research or teaching assistant, or having me supervise your independent study or honors thesis, please email me your resume/CV and a brief description of the type of work you want to do.
Grants, awards & honours
| 2026 | President's Research and Creative Activities Fund, ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ with support from an Explore Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council |
| 2026 | Marjorie Young Bell Faculty Fund for Conference Travel Support, ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ |
| 2024/2023 | Exchange Conference Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, York University |
| 2023 | "Right to the Discipline" Grant, Antipode Foundation |
| 2022 | Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky |
| 2019 | Scholar Award, Philanthropic Educational Organization |
| 2018 | Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award (#1833226), National Sciences Foundation Geography and Spatial Sciences Program |
| 2018 | Evelyn L. Puitt National Fellowship for Dissertation Research Society of Woman Geographers |
| 2015 | Miriam and Saul B. Cohen Prize for Geographic Excellence, Department of Geography, Hunter College of the City University of New York |