Shawnta Smith-Cruz
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Biography
Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is a volunteer archivist at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and an Assistant Curator, and Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries. Shawn is a recipient of the 2020 WGSS Award for Significant Achievement in Women’s & Gender Studies in Librarianship sponsored by Duke University Press, administered by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), for her work archiving the Salsa Soul Sisters, the first lesbian of color organization in the country. Shawn’s research interests include Critical Race Theory and its intersections with queer narrative formation, indigenous epistemologies, ancestral connection, and black lesbians’ herstories and spaces.
Education
MLS, Queens College
MFA Fiction, Queens College
BS Queer Women’s Studies, CUNY Baccalaureate Program, City University of New York