Name: James F. Smith
Rank: Professor
Office address: 119 Sutherland
Phone Number: (215)881- 7530
E-mail: jfs6@psu.edu
Institution(s) where degrees were earned:
A.B. English, Boston College, 1968.
M.A. English, Penn State, 1969
Ph.D. English, Penn State, 1972
Background & Scholarship:
James Smith is Professor of English and American Studies and serves as head of the Division of Social Sciences at Penn State Abington. A member of the faculty since 1971, he teaches courses in American studies and American literature.
His research has centered on American literature and culture. He has published articles on subjects as diverse as popular literature (Tom Wolfe, Stephen King), popular places (Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Atlantic City casinos), and popular music (Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley). He is co-author (with his colleague Vicki Abt) of The Business of Risk: Commercial Gambling in Mainstream America (U, of Kansas Press, 1985), one of the first studies of gambling in America to take an objective view of this important social, economic, and political force during the last half of the 20th century.
