Rev. Robert O. Smith, PhD (he/him/his), serves as Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Robert is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and an ordained Minister of Word & Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Robert graduated from Luther Seminary with the MDiv and an MA is Islamic Studies. He earned his PhD in Religion, Politics & Society at Baylor University. He has served in many ministerial contexts, including campus ministry, ELCA Global Mission, and as an Associate to the Bishop of the Northern Texas–Northern Louisiana Synod. Previously, he served as a history professor at the University of North Texas and as founding director of the University of Notre Dame’s Jerusalem Global Gateway.

Robert is a broadly interdisciplinary scholar who deploys the methodological lenses of critical race theory, decolonial theory, and political theology to better understand the historical sources of contemporary political dynamics. His pathbreaking work on the political ideology of Christian Zionism exemplifies this approach: Robert is the author of More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism (Oxford, 2013) and editor, with Göran Gunner, of Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison (Fortress, 2014).

Together, with his partner Aja Y. Martinez, Robert is co-author of The Origins of Critical Race Theory: The People and Ideas That Created a Movement (NYU Press, 2025) and Harmony and Harassment: A New Critical Race Theory Story (UC Press, 2026). Described as the “Bonnie & Clyde of CRT,” Martinez and Smith have several more books forthcoming on CRT and other topics.

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