Shawnta Smith-Cruz

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is the Dean of Barnard Library.

Shawn also co-leads the ALISE Innovative Pedagogy Special Interest Group, and is a co-founder of the Fridays in May: Queer BIPOC Peer-Networking program, co-sponsored by Pratt SI and METRO. She is an original team lead for the Critical Pedagogy Symposium, managing editor for Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal, and series co-editor for the Series on Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies of Litwin Books/ Library Juice Press. 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.

Before Barnard, Shawn served as a volunteer archivist at the Lesbian Herstory Archives for over twenty years, five years as an Assistant Curator, and Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries, and was initiated into academic librarianship with nine years at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she left as their Head of Reference. With library and archival experiences at various institutions, including Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch, and as Archive Coordinator at StoryCorps, Shawn is an avid reader, writer, and can be found mentoring new and prospective librarians via mentorship programs at ARL, or ACRL-NY. At Pratt, Shawn administers and teaches the core Reference and Instruction course, 652, which collaborates with NYPL’s Jail and Prison Services to distribute reference letters to people who are incarcerated.

MLS, Queens College
MFA Fiction, Queens College
BS Queer Women’s Studies, CUNY Baccalaureate Program, City University of New York

Smith-Cruz, S., and Sara Howard. (2024). Grabbing Tea (Vol 1): Queer Conversations in Identities and Libraries, Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books.

Smith-Cruz, S., and Sara Howard. (2024). Grabbing Tea (Vol 2): Queer Conversations in Archives and Practice, Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books.

Smith-Cruz, S. (2024). “Ancestral calls: What if learning is bearing witness? and other derivatives of June Beer.” In Education for Information: Special Issue: Resistant Knowledges: unmasking coloniality through the re-search of local to global communities. (4).

Smith-Cruz, S., April Hathcock and Scott Collard. (2024).“Reflections on a Faculty Cluster Hiring Approach at a Large PWI Academic Library.” In Kathryn Houk, Jordan Nielsen, & Jenny Wong- Welch (Eds.), Toward Inclusive Academic Librarian Hiring Practices. Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).

Bakaitis, E., and Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz. (2022.) “Breaking Open: Defining a Student-Centered Pedagogy.” In Elizabeth Dill and Mary Ann Cullen, Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy. Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

Bakaitis, Elvis, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, and Red Washburn, eds. (2020) Forty-Five Years: A Tribute to the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Sinister Wisdom: Lesbian Literary and Art Journal, (118).

The Editorial Collective: Smith-Cruz, Shawn(ta) D., Allison Ricket, Brynn Warriner, Angela Martin, and Amy Washburn, eds. (2017). Celebrating the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Sinister Wisdom: Lesbian Literary and Art Journal, (103).