Raymond Smith

Raymond A. Smith, Ph.D., LL.M., is a political scientist focusing on issues of human rights, civil rights, comparative politics, and the balance of majority rule and minority rights within democratic political systems. He is a Senior Lecturer with the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona based in the School of Global Studies.

Within the Human Rights Practice Program, Dr. Smith was the Interim Director Program Director and from 2024-26 and Director of Undergraduate Studies from 2021-26. He was a member of the executive committee of the School of Global Studies from 2024-26 and remains an Executive Committee member of the Human Rights Practice Program.  He also founded and serves as editor of the UArizona HRTS Blog, which highlights writing by students and alumni as well as news about the program. At UA, he is a member of the LGBTQ+ Institute and was previously Assistant Director of the Master's in Development Practice Program (MDP) Program in the UA School of Geography, Development, and Environment (SGDE). 

Prior to starting with UA in 2018, he taught political science for fifteen years at Columbia University and New York University in New York City, worked at a research institute at the Columbia University Medical Center, and served as a Senior Fellow with the Progressive Policy Institute, a thinktank in Washington DC. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, an LL.M. in international human rights law from the University of Essex in the UK, and an MA in international relations from Yale University.