Lindsey Smith, a professor at Oklahoma State University, will be the inaugural program director of NYU Tulsa, the university announced in a Monday press release.
Smith will oversee the study away site’s finances, student services and academic programming. In a statement introducing the program, Smith cited Tulsa’s ethnic diversity and developing infrastructure to encourage students to attend the site. The letter aligns with much of the site’s curriculum, which focuses on Tulsa’s Indigenous population and integrating more urban, tech-centered industries into the city.
“A life-long Tulsan and a leading interdisciplinary scholar with broad and deep relationships across the region, Lindsey Smith is an ideal choice to serve as NYU Tulsa’s inaugural program director,” NYU president Linda Mills said in the press release.
Smith will also maintain NYU Tulsa’s existing partnerships, such as the George Kaiser Family Foundation, to provide students with academic and professional opportunities. NYU also plans to provide internship opportunities in industries including venture capital firms, human rights, public policy organizations and art studios, as well as offer courses in politics, sociology and engineering.
Ahead of her tenure as NYU Tulsa director, Smith will go on leave from OSU after serving as director of its Center for Poets and Writers through the last academic year. Smith has also taught several classes on Native American literature and conducted research on the subject.
The Tulsa site, which marks NYU’s 16th global location and fourth location in the United States, will see its first cohort of 20 students next semester.
The site saw initial groups of students last spring through programs focused on community service, and also hosted another class of students who participated in internships near campus over the summer. Starting this spring, the site will offer classes and events out of the space it is leasing in the city’s arts district. In an April interview with WSN, Tulsa mayor G.T. Bynum said he hopes the site will encourage students to stay in Oklahoma after their time at NYU.
Contact Eric Yue at [email protected].