[3] Smith received a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from Princeton University[4] in 1999.
[6] In 2016, Smith published a book through University of Illinois Press titled Afro-Paradise: Blackness, Violence, and Performance in Brazil.
The term was inspired by time she spent in Salvador, Bahia, with Smith explaining "The state terrorizes its own citizens in order to create the fantasy of Bahia as a celebratory, romantic Black paradise: Afro-Paradise.
[9] Another positive review in Studies in Latin American Popular Culture described the format of the book, which intersperses scenes from a play by a Bahian activist group, as "highly innovative".
She made a t-shirt with the words "Cite Black Women" and began wearing it to conferences, eventually making more and selling them.