Sharon C. Smith

Biography

Sharon C. Smith, Ph.D., is the Assistant Director of the Rev. Michal C. McFarland, S.J., Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross. She is a cultural heritage scholar whose work focuses on global humanities research, digital scholarship, and public engagement.

In her current role, Smith organizes scholarly initiatives, conferences, and co-curricular events, contributes to strategic planning, and oversees the Center’s daily operations. She also directs the Center’s marketing and communications, managing its public identity and expanding engagement through digital platforms, campus collaborations, and media outreach.

Before joining Holy Cross, Smith served as the Founding Director of the Aga Khan Documentation Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she established the Center as a resource for the study of material and visual cultures of the Muslim world. During her tenure, the Center received MIT’s Infinite Mile Award for Community Building and the Mohamed Makiya Prize, recognizing its stewardship of rare, digitized, and born-digital collections and its collaborations with universities, museums, archives, and cultural heritage organizations.

Smith’s preservation work has included contributions to the protection of endangered libraries and archives, particularly in areas affected by conflict or political instability. She has worked with international partners on documentation initiatives, digital-preservation methodologies, and strategies for safeguarding at-risk cultural materials.

Her involvement in global heritage protection includes service as a Participating Expert on UNESCO’s Safeguarding Syria’s Cultural Heritage Committee, where she contributed to assessments, documentation efforts, and preservation planning. She has also collaborated with ICCROM, the Center for Research Libraries, and other organizations working in cultural heritage resilience and stewardship.

Smith has held editorial roles in the field. She was the Imaging Editor for Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World at Harvard University, overseeing image evaluation and preparation for publication. She served as Guest Editor for the “Faith in Water, Water in Faith” volume of Material Cultures in the Muslim World and is co-editor of a forthcoming Festschrift honoring András Riedlmayer. Her documentary photography has been exhibited internationally and was featured in the 2024 WETA PBS film A Sacred Piece of Home: Washington, D.C. – Mid-Century Transformations.

An experienced educator, Smith has taught courses on Islamic art and architecture, global architecture and design history, environmental humanities, and medieval and Renaissance art at Boston Architectural College, Boston College, Harvard University, and Binghamton University.

She holds a Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Art and Architecture from Binghamton University (SUNY) and an M.A. and B.A. in Art History from San José State University. She has competencies in Italian, French, Spanish, and Arabic.