Sarah L. Smiley
Biography
I am an urban geographer with research interests in water and development. I use multiple qualitative methods including surveys, interviews, participant observation, spatial video, mental mapping, and archival research. I am specifically interested in the ways that colonial legacies of segregation and inequitable housing and amenity provision affect everyday life in Sub-Saharan Africa. My current research project analyzes what access to water really means. In particular I explore how the price, availability, reliability, and quality of water along with the physical act of walking to collect it impact water access. I am based at the Salem Campus where I teach a variety of Kent Core and Diversity Courses, and I also teach graduate courses on Water and Society and on African Cities on the Kent Campus.
Education
Publications
- Smiley, S., A. Zakrajsek, and K. Fletcher. 2021. Leadership Journeys: Reflections on Experiences and Challenges from Women in Academic Leadership. Journal of Women in Educational Leadership 277.
- Agbemor, B. and S. Smiley. 2021. Risk Factors in Water Sector Public-Private Partnership Projects and Mitigation Measures: Lessons from the Asutifi North District, Ghana. H2Open 4, 1: 77–91.
- Agbemor, B. and S. Smiley. 2021. Tensions Between Formal and Informal Water Providers: Receptivity Toward Mechanised Boreholes in the Sunyani West District, Ghana. Journal of Development Studies 57, 3: 383-399.
- Smiley, S., B. Agbemor, E. Adams, and R. Tutu. 2020. COVID-19 and Water Access in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana’s Free Water Directive May Not Benefit Water Insecure Households. African Geographical Review 39, 4: 398-404.
- Smiley, S. and H. Hambati. 2020. Using Photograph Interpretation to Understand Household Perceptions of Floods in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Papers in Applied Geography. 6, 2: 159-173.
- Smiley, S. and J. Stoler. 2020. Socio-environmental Confounders of Safe Water Interventions. WIRES Water. 7:e1438.
- Smiley, S. 2020. Heterogeneous Water Provision in Dar es Salaam: The Role of Networked Infrastructures and Alternative Systems in Informal Areas. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848620908194
- Hungerford, H., Smiley, S., et al. 2019. Coping with Floods in Pikine, Senegal: An Exploration of Household Impacts and Prevention Efforts. Urban Science 3, 2, 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci3020054
- Smiley, S. 2019. Explaining improvements and continuing challenges in water access in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. International Journal of Water Resources Development 35, 6: 959-976.
- Smiley, S. and H. Hambati. 2019. Impacts of Flooding on Drinking Water Access in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Implications for the Sustainable Development Goals. Journal of Water, Sanitation, Hygiene for Development 9, 2: 392-396.
- Adams, E., D. Sambu, and S. Smiley. 2019. Urban Water Supply in Sub-Saharan Africa: Historical and Emerging Policies and Institutional Arrangements. International Journal of Water Resources Development 35, 2: 240-263.
- Adams, E. and S. Smiley. 2018. Urban-Rural Water Access Inequalities in Malawi: Implications for Monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals. Natural Resources Forum 42, 4: 217-226.
- Smiley, S. 2017. Impacts of Improved Water Access on Water Vendors and Resellers. Tanzanian Journal of Population Studies and Development 24, 1-2.
- Smiley, S. 2017. Quality Matters: Incorporating Water Quality into Water Access Monitoring in Rural Malawi. Water International 42, 3: 585-598.
- Smiley, S., A. Curtis, and J. Kiwango. 2017. Using Spatial Video to Analyze and Map the Water Fetching Path in Challenging Environments: A Case Study of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases 2, 8; doi:10.3390/tropicalmed20200
- Smiley, S. 2017. Teaching Cultural Geography with “The Amazing Race”. Journal of Geography 116, 3: 109-118.
- Smiley, S. 2017. Defining and Measuring Water Access in Tanzania: Lessons for Moving Forward in the post-Millennium Development Goal Era. African Geographical Review 36, 2: 168-182.
- Smiley, S. 2016. Water Availability and Reliability in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Journal of Development Studies 52, 9: 1320-1334.
- Hungerford, H. and S. Smiley. 2016. Comparing Colonial Water Provision in British and French Africa. Journal of Historical Geography 52: 74-83.
- Curtis, A., J. Blackburn, S. Smiley, et al. 2016. Mapping to Support Fine Scale Epidemiological Cholera Investigations: A Case Study of Spatial Video in Haiti. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 13 (2), 187; doi: 10.3390/ij
- Kusek, W. and S. Smiley. 2014. Navigating the City: Gender and Positionality in Cultural Geography Research. Journal of Cultural Geography 31, 2: 152-165.
- Smiley, S. and C. Post. 2014. Using Popular Culture to Teach the Geography of the United States and Canada. Journal of Geography 113, 6: 238-246.
- Smiley, S. 2013. Complexities of Water Access in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Applied Geography 41, 132-138.
- Smiley, S. 2013. Mental Maps, Segregation, and Everyday Life in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Journal of Cultural Geography 30, 2: 215-244.
- Smiley, S. 2010. Exclusionary Space in Dar es Salaam: Fear and Difference in Expatriate Communities. Africa Today 56, 3: 24–40.
- Smiley, S. 2010. Expatriate Everyday Life in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Colonial Origins and Contemporary Legacies. Social and Cultural Geography 11, 4: 327–342.
- Smiley, S. 2009. The City of Three Colors: Segregation in Colonial Dar es Salaam, 1891-1961. Historical Geography 37: 178-196.