Congratulations to Dr. Brent Smith on his retirement from the University of Arkansas

December 4, 2019

 

The Department of Sociology and Criminology and the Terrorism Research Center (TRC) hosted an event to celebrate the career of TRC founding Director, Dr. Brent L. Smith. He retired from the University of Arkansas in December (2019). Dr. Smith received his PhD in Sociology from Purdue University in 1979, and first began teaching about terrorism in the U.S. Army. In 1987, while working in as a professor in the Department of Justice Sciences at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, he founded the American Terrorism Study (ATS). Today, the ATS database is one of the largest sources of terrorism data in the United States and has been consistently supported by federal research funds for many years.

During his career, Dr. Smith has testified before Congress, worked with numerous federal law enforcement agencies, published several scholarly articles in distinguished journals, and wrote his groundbreaking book “Terrorism in America: Pipe Bombs and Pipe Dreams.” He also served as Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice from 2008 to 2015. Dr. Jeff Gruenewald, the new director of the TRC, noted that Dr. Smith “has achieved an incredible amount of success in his career and has served as a mentor to countless students and young researchers.”

Congratulations to Dr. Smith and our best wishes to him and his family!