About Christina
Christina Cowart-Smith’s scholarship has, among other distinctions, been awarded a Harvard Prize Book (2011), Phi Beta Kappa Book Award (2012), Stanford University Chappell Lougee Fellowship (2014), Stanford University Junior Prize in Classics (2015), Stanford University Senior Prize in Classics (2016), Stanford University Robert M. Golden Medal (2016), Glasgow University First Marquis of Montrose Award for Scottish Studies (2017), Cambridge Trust Scholarship (2018), and British Archaeological Association Ochs Scholarship (2022).
Christina’s academic research has been funded by Stanford University, the British Archaeological Association, Durham University, and Hatfield College, Durham. In 2018, Christina was in the privileged position of getting to choose a fully-funded PhD at Durham over a similarly fully-funded PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge, owing to the supervisory expertise of the former institution (Dr David Petts & Professor Sarah Semple).
Christina holds four degrees with distinction from Stanford University (Classics; BA Hons & Phi Beta Kappa), the University of Glasgow (Medieval History; MLitt), and Durham University (Medieval Archaeology; MA & PhD). Before finishing her PhD, she was appointed to a fixed-term contract as Lecturer in the Department of Celtic & Gaelic at the University of Glasgow through to early 2024. From 2018-2024, Christina taught undergraduates in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University on various history and archaeology modules. In 2023, she was chosen as Senior Tutor—a pastoral and administrative role covering all 40+ postgraduate teaching assistants in the department.
Presently, Christina is in the process of converting her recently-completed PhD (2023) into a series of publications. Since 2018, she has served as a Stanford University Admissions interviewer. To date, she has conducted over 80 interviews for students applying to Stanford from the UK. During the 2024-25 admissions cycle, Christina will be stepping back from Stanford interviews while she works privately as a university admissions advisor.
Christina privately tutors students of all ages in English language and literature, essay writing, history, and university applications and enthusiastically assists her freelance clients with their publishing, editing, and writing quandaries.
Christina is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and an Affiliate Member of the Society of Antiquaries of London. She is an elected Committee Member of the Pictish Arts Society and volunteers at a number of other heritage organisations, including The British Museum. She regularly gives public talks and specialist lectures. As time permits, Christina posts to the social media pages of the British Academy-funded Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture (CASSS). She is committed to this and other forms of public-facing academic engagement. Since 2017, she has excavated on Holy Island, Northumberland with Durham University & Dig Ventures.
In her spare time, Christina is an avid traditional musician and is often found playing at pub jam sessions or in Royal Scottish Country Dance bands. From the age of 9, she trained under Hebridean fiddler Calum MacKinnon. For the next decade she went onto perform on countless stages and in numerous competitions, including the U.S. Nationals for Scottish Fiddling. This music is her longest love and its people and places continue to shape her intellectual pursuits.
