Caroline Jackson Smith

  • Professor of Theater and Africana Studies

Areas of Study

Education

  • BA, Yale University, 1974

Biography

Caroline Jackson Smith is professor of theater and Africana studies. A recipient of the prestigious 1993 fellowship for early career directors from the Theater Communications Group/National Endowment for the Arts, Prof. Jackson-Smith made her New York debut at the New York Public Theater in 1995, when she directed Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro for the Signature Theater Company.

She has directed and or worked as a dramaturg for the Cleveland Play House, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Karamu House, and the Cleveland Public Theatre on such productions as The Women of Plums, The Talented Tenth, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Our Town, Your Town.

A graduate of Yale University, Prof. Jackson-Smith served as the executive director of the Yale Afro-American Cultural Center for eight years. Since coming to Oberlin in 1989, she has directed The Gospel at Colonus, The Tapestry, The Resurrection of Lady Lester, Darker Face of the Earth, and The Colored Museum, among other productions.

Fall 2024

Theater Now! — THEA 190
Workshop: Playwrighting and Performance in the Time of the Black Lives Matter Movement — AAST 278
Playwrighting and Performance in the Time of the Black Lives Matter Movement — THEA 278

Spring 2025

Framing Blackness: African Americans and Film in The United States, 1915 to the Present — AAST 261
Theater of the Millennium — THEA 309

Notes

Caroline Jackson Smith Serves as Panelist

February 24, 2020

Professor of Theater and Africana Studies Caroline Jackson Smith served as a panelist at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage for a discussion about black theater, with a focus on the history of African-American theater in Northeast Ohio. The talk was held in connection with the Maltz's special exhibit Leonard Music: The Power of Music .

Caroline Jackson Smith Directs Reading of Play

September 16, 2019

Professor of Theater and Africana Studies Caroline Jackson Smith directed a reading of a new play by local playwright Margaret Lynch at Playwrights Local in Cleveland.

News

2022 Winter Term Recap

March 11, 2022

More than 2,290 students explored projects and research opportunities outside of their normal course of study during Winter Term. In this wrap-up gallery we look back at some of the group projects students performed.

This Week in Photos: Perspectives

July 28, 2021

A photographer’s perspective of a group of Oberlin residents and students walking through Tappan Square on a nice summer afternoon—a large tree trunk pictured in the foreground—serves as inspiration for this week’s photo series.