“My discipline is constantly searching for rich terrains of human interaction in which to explore and examine,” says Matthew Smith.  Smith, a Jeffrey Campbell Fellow in Performance and Communication Arts, explains, “As this world shrinks, another one is constantly growing out of technology.  This new society is running parallel to our own, created and sustained by the world’s computers and communication lines -- the global traffic of knowledge, communication, measurements, indicators, entertainments, secrets and alter-human agency takes on form. This new world is Cyberspace. I study this unique society that has taken on a culture and an identity all its own.”

Smith received his undergraduate degree at SUNY Potsdam and then went directly into the graduate program at the University at Buffalo, where he completed his master’s degree and is working toward his Ph.D. in anthropology. As a Campbell Fellow at
St. Lawrence, he both teaches and continues his doctoral studies; “I find the support of the University and its unending enthusiasm in my research energizing,” he says.

Smith teaches Introduction to Communication Arts and an upper-level Computer Communication seminar.  Of his students, Smith says, “Their unique perceptions into the field of computer-mediated communication add a great deal toward the development of my appreciation of the discipline. The classes allow me the opportunity to further develop my research through the productive discourse of class discussion and reflection.”

Smith has introduced his students to Second Life, an immersive, user-created online world. “This exercise is not about a fantasy world cut off from reality,” he says. “Increasingly, it is difficult to separate the digital from the physical. Our Blackberries, iPhones, and PDAs tether us to the digital. This exercise grants the students an opportunity to experience community, communication, and identity in a way similar to study-abroad programs, but in this case the students’ bodies never leave the Newell Center for Arts Technology computer lab.”