Dr Tom Smith

Dr Tom Smith

Senior Lecturer

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 2998
Email
tas3@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
Room 106
Location
Buchanan
Office hours
Tuesday 2-3, Thursday 11-12

 

Research areas

I started in ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø in 2017, having previously taught at Newcastle University, University College London, and Worcester College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. My research interests are:

  • post-war and contemporary German literature and culture
  • music (classical and popular, especially electronic) in German culture
  • German film and television
  • gender and queer studies
  • decolonial approaches to teaching and research
  • the culture of East Germany

I am happy to discuss supervision of doctoral work on any of these areas.

My current project explores queer of colour perspectives on Germany’s club scene from the late 1980s. I am working with a range of sources, from electronic music, photography and club promotional material to magazines, literature and film. The first stage of the project was funded by a Research Incentive Grant from the Carnegie Trust, entitled Afrogermanic? Cultural Exchange and Racial Difference in the Aesthetic Products of the Early Techno Scenes in Detroit and Berlin. I was selected as one of the  in 2019. I presented some of my work on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking and The Essay â€“ listen to my piece on race in techno's origins in Detroit and Berlin.

With Nicola Thomas, Rey Conquer and Richard McClelland, I co-founded an online resource dedicated to diversity and decolonising in German Studies called . It features a  of texts and films, and a . Please get in touch if you’d like to contribute!

My book, , appeared in February 2020 with Berghahn Books, and is available to download as an open-access e-book. I presented some of my ideas from the book as an Essay on BBC Radio 3 – listen to it on .

PhD supervision

  • °­±ð²Ô»å°ù²¹&²Ô²ú²õ±è;³¢Ã¶·É±ð°ù
  • Caroline May

Selected publications

  • Open access
    Smith, T., 1 May 2025, Socialist subjectivities: queering East Germany under Honecker. White, K., Harrison, S. & Hayton, J. (eds.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, p. 86-105 (Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Open access
    Smith, T. (Translator), 31 Oct 2025, 6 p. Online : Goldsmiths University of London.

    Research output: Other contribution

  • Smith, T., 29 Sept 2025, In: Histoire Sociale / Social History. 58, 119, p. 232-234

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

  • Smith, T., 2 Aug 2024, Documenting socialism: East German documentary cinema. Allan, S. & Heiduschke, S. (eds.). New York, NY: Berghahn, p. 287-306 20 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Smith, T., 14 Feb 2024, In: Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies. 60, 1, p. 78-80

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

  • Open access
    Smith, T., 1 Aug 2023, Entertaining German culture: contemporary transnational television and film. Ehrig, S., Schaper, B. & Ward, E. (eds.). New York, NY: Berghahn, p. 232-258 27 p. (Film Europa: German cinema in an international context; vol. 27).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Open access
    Smith, T., 15 Nov 2022, In: The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory. 97, 4, p. 375-392 18 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Smith, T., 14 Dec 2021, In: Dancecult. 13, 1, p. 152-155

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review

  • Open access
    Smith, T., 2021, German pop music in literary and transmedial perspectives. Schütte, U. (ed.). Berlin: Peter Lang, p. 93-114 (Studies in modern German and Austrian literature; vol. 11).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

  • Open access
    Smith, T. A., 17 Feb 2020, New York: Berghahn. 269 p.

    Research output: Book/Report › Book