Christina Smiley is a 3rd-year PhD student in musicology at Washington University in St. Louis and 2024-25 CRE2 Race & Ethnicity Scholar. Prior to attending WashU, she studied music and communication studies, obtaining her associate and bachelor’s degrees at Indian River State College and the University of Miami, respectively. Christina is interested in the intersections of race, class, gender, theology, literature, and politics in African American sacred music during the 20th century. More specifically, her emerging scholarship observes the melding of the sacred and secular in non-idiomatic sacred choral works by Black composers, considering the traces of radical Black resistance and concurrent Black socio-political paradigms. Her research interests also include African American participation in and performance of European classical music, global music history and intercultural exchange, and esotericism and transcendence in gospel, jazz, and soul genres. Apart from her scholarly pursuits, Christina is an active musician, performing in classical, gospel, jazz, and musical theatre arenas. In her free time, she enjoys trying new foods, writing poetry and novels, composing music, sewing, traveling, and streaming good TV shows.
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