Education
- December 1998 – PhD. University at Albany, SUNY
Political Science
Fields: American Politics, Public Law, Comparative Politics - May 1993 – M.A. George Washington
University International Affairs
Fields: International Economic, Economic Development, Russian and East European Studies - August 1991 – B.A. Brigham Young University
International Relations, German
Biography
Dr. Smith's primary fields of interest are federal systems of government, complexity and public policy, and American government. He is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Federalism, and editor of Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia. His academic work has appeared in Publius: The Journal of Federalism; The Review of Politics; Congress & the Presidency; Thinking Skills & Creativity; and others.
Dr. Smith first became interested in federalism when his east coast graduate friends argued for reintroducing wolves in the Rocky Mountains but opposed their reintroduction in the Adirondacks. His interest spiked when, as an intern with the U.S. Senate, he watched quarrels between his senators and the governor. Channeling his insights, he wrote a paper on how members of Congress responded to lobbying by state officials that won the “Best Paper in Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations” at the 1998 A.P.S.A. Annual Meeting.
Dr. Smith loves learning and tackling challenges whether that be teaching students about federalism, writing, reasoning, climbing cliff faces, playing classical guitar, or coaxing Hawai'i's fish to his spear.
Presentations
- "Covenants, Constitutions, and the Citizenship of Self Government" (Faculty Forum Presentation, March 2018).
- "The Problem of Peace" (Presented to the BYUH Honors Society, 2008).
Publications
- "Teaching Critical Thinking in a GE Class: A Flipped Model," Thinking Skills and Creativity, co-authored with Paul Rama and Joel Helms (June 2018).
Dr. Smith headed the committees that designed and developed the BYUH General Education critical thinking course (2014-2017). This paper describes the course and its effectiveness in teaching students critical thinking skills. - “A Compound Republic – If You Can Keep It: Martha Derthick’s Empiricism and the Value of Federalism," Publius: The Journal of Federalism (Spring 2017).
- “Intergovernmental Relations in the United States,” Dialogues on Intergovernmental Relations in Federal Countries, ed. by Cheryl Saunders, JoHanne Poirier and John Kincaid (Oxford University Press, 2015) pp. 411-439.
- “Federalism: An Annotated Bibliography,” in Oxford Bibliographies Online: Political Science, ed. by Richard Valelly (New York: Oxford University Press, 29 Nov. 2011).
- “Intergovernmental Lobbying: How Opportunistic Actors Create a Less Structured and Balanced Federal System,” Intergovernmental Management for the 21st Century, ed. by Paul Posner and Timothy Conlan (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008), pp. 310-37.
- “Responses to Rubin and Feeley,” by Troy E. Smith and J. Cherie Strachan, Publius: The Journal of Federalism (Spring 2008).
- “Divided Publius: Democracy, Federalism and the Cultivation of Public Sentiment,” Review of Politics (Fall 2007), pp. 568-598.
- Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia, 2-volume set, edited by Joseph R. Marbach, Ellis Katz and Troy E. Smith (Greenwood Press: 2005).