Raymond Smith §

Acting Director, Human Rights Practice Program
Executive Committee Member and Faculty Member, Human Rights Practice Program
Ray Smith at UN
raymondsmith@arizona.edu

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 on the faculty of 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 is currently Acting Director and has been designated as an Executive Committee member, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and faculty member.  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 and served as a Senior Fellow with the Progressive Policy Institute, a thinktank in Washington DC.