Sarah Morgan Smith’s teaching and research focus on the intersection of religion and politics in American history, with an emphasis on questions of civic formation in sustaining political commitments. Drawing on her years in the field of public history and civic education, she is also deeply interested in the use of material culture and visual culture as sources for understanding the development of American political thought.

Smith has taught courses on the history of political thought at Rutgers University and Montclair State University. She received her B.A. in History from Grove City College in 2001, her M.A. in American History and Government from Ashland University in 2009, and her Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University in 2016