Professional Affiliation

Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Professor and Associate Professor of Political Science, Iowa State University.

Expert Bio

Amy Erica Smith is an associate professor of political science, as well as a Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Professor at Iowa State University; in the 2020-22 academic years, she is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow.

Smith’s research examines how citizens understand and engage in politics in democratic and authoritarian regimes, with a primary geographic emphasis on Latin America, and especially Brazil. Her books include Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God (2019, Cambridge University Press), and she has published numerous articles in top peer-reviewed outlets in political science, as well as in venues for policymakers and the general public. Much of her recent work focuses on religion and responses to climate change in the developing world.

In addition to her Wilson Fellowship, Smith has received fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, Fulbright, and the University of Notre Dame Kellogg Institute for International Studies, as well as the Luce, Mellon, and Templeton Foundations. The Iowa State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has recognized her with Awards for Early Achievement in Research and Mid-Career Achievement in Research. Smith received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh in Fall 2011.

www.amyericasmith.org

Wilson Center Project

Religion and Climate Change in Brazil: The Deluge and the Desert

Project Summary

Two parallel trends are transforming the developing world: climate change and the growing demographic importance of Pentecostalism and conservative Protestantism. As environmental degradation reshapes the physical environments in which humans live, citizens interpret the changes and respond through frames shaped by their religious communities. Utilizing a Brazilian case study, this project asks, how is religion molding citizens’ explanations of and responses to climate change? During the 2019–2020 academic year, Dr. Smith will finish a book manuscript, tentatively entitled Religion and Climate Change in Brazil: The Deluge and the Desert.

Major Publications

Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

“Talking It Out: Political Conversation and Knowledge Gaps in Unequal Urban Contexts.” British Journal of Political Science 48(2): 407-425, 2018.

 "Democratic Talk in Church: Religion and Political Socialization in the Context of Urban Inequality.” World Development 99: 441-451, 2017.