Adam T. Smith is Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, Cornell University. He is also co-founder (with Ruben Badalyan) of The American-Armenian Project for the Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies (Project ArAGATS) and co-director (with Lori Khatchadourian) of The Aragats Foundation.
Smith received an M.Phil. from Cambridge University (1991) and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona's Department of Anthropology (1996). He was then a member of the University of Michigan's Society of Fellows from 1997-2000 before joining the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Beginning in the Fall of 2011, Smith joined the faculty of the Cornell University's Department of Anthropology where he currently serves as Department Chairperson.
Smith's research is dedicated to the archaeology and anthropology of the South Caucasus, particularly they area of modern Armenia, where most of his work has been focused. His work investigates "the role that the material world—everyday objects, representational media, natural and built landscapes—plays in our political lives".
Smith is a winner of a 2010 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship