Alison smith biography
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Professor Smith is a specialist in the history of imperial Russia. Most recently, she has been conducting research about the palace and town of Gatchina, planning to write both a monograph on autocratic authority in the region and also a collective microhistory based on findings from the archives (a first experiment at microhistory is her series of blog posts on "The Case of the Dead Cheese Master" at the Russian History Blog). In addition, she has recently completed a monograph on social status and social mobility: For the Common Good and Their Own Well Being: Social Estates in Imperial Russia (Oxford, 2014), and has also published a series of articles on related subjects, including “Freed Serfs without Free People: Manumission in Imperial Russia,” AHR (2013). Her work on these projects was supported by grants from SSHRC and IREX.
Professor Smith has also published a number of articles and a monograph on food in Imperial Russian history. The monograph – Recipes for Russia: Food and Nationhood under the Tsars (2008) – examines the interaction between foreign knowledge and traditional patterns of behaviour in the production and consumption of food. Her various articles on specific aspects of this general subject include “National Cuisine and Nationalist Politics: V.F. Odoevskii and “’Doctor Puf,’ 1844-5” (2009); “Eating Out in Imperial Russia: Class, Nationality and Dining before the Great Reforms” (2006); and “Public Works in an Autocratic State: Water Supplies in an Imperial Russian Town” (2003). Work on these projects was supported by grants from the Fulbright-Hayes and Mellon foundations.
EXCERPTS
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A luminous, poignant true story, Alison Smith's stunning first book, Name All the Animals, is an unparalleled account of grief and secret love: the tale of a family clinging to the memory of a lost child, and a young woman struggling to define herself in the wake of his loss.
As children, siblings Alison and Roy Smith were so close that their mother called them by one name: Alroy. But on a cool summer morning when Alison was fifteen, she woke to learn that Roy, eighteen, was dead. This is Smith's extraordinary account of the impact of that loss -- on herself, on her parents, and on a deeply religious community.
At home, Alison and her parents sleepwalk in shifts. Alison hoards food for her lost brother, hides in the backyard fort they built together, and waits for him to return. During the day, she breaks every rule at Our Lady of Mercy School for Girls, where the baffled but loving nuns offer prayer, Shakespeare, and a job running the switchboard. In the end, Alison finds her own way to survive: a startling and taboo first love that helps her discover a world beyond the death of her brother.
An intimate book written in clear-eyed prose, Name All the Animals announces a brilliant new writer with a keen insight into the emotional life of the American family, the power of sibling love and loyalty, and the excruciating joy of first, forbidden love. Smith tells the story through her own fifteen-year-old eyes, with such expert pacing and narrative suspense that readers will find the book hard to put down.
Heartbreaking but hopeful, this is ultimately a book less about loss than it is about love -- about the excitement and anguish of Alison's first love, about her parents' enduring romance, about a community's passion for its faith, and about a well-loved boy who dies too young. A fiercely beautiful, redemptive book, it is sure to be a classic.
Patch was named for the sectioni Professor of Plant Biochemistry, interested in plant metabolism and metabolic engineering, particular of microalgae. Director of Algal Innovation Centre. Has served on Boards for NIAB, Marine Biological Association of the UK, BBSRC responsive mode and strategy panels, and currently member of scientific advisory boards for Manchester Institute for Biotechnology, the Quadram Institute and the European Algal Biomass Association. Our research addresses several aspects of the metabolism of plants, algae and bacteria, in particular biosynthesis of vitamins, pigments and lipids, using a wide range of techniques from biochemistry through molecular biology to genomics. The knowledge gained from these studies is being used to explore the potential for metabolic engineering of high value products in plants and algae, using synthetic biology approaches to streamline strain engineering and to generate recoded or refactored versions of the entire chloroplast genome. We also have a scale-up facility to test routes to commericalise algal biotechnology.Biography
Professor Alison Smith
Professor of Plant Biochemistry
Department of Plant Sciences
Allison Smith (actress)
American actress
Allison Smith (born December 9, 1969) is an American actress, singer, writer and director, best known for her work on television as Mallory O'Brien in Aaron Sorkin's Emmy Award-winning NBC drama The West Wing and for starring on Broadway in the title role Annie. She also played the role of Jennie Lowell on the 1980s Emmy Award-winning sitcom Kate & Allie. In addition to starring in Annie, Smith has also appeared on stage in a host of other roles, including a part in the original Broadway production of Evita (alongside Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin), a starring role in the Los Angeles premiere production of David Mamet'sOleanna, and supporting roles in Peter Parnell'sQED (opposite Alan Alda), and the musical The Education Of Randy Newman, in which she played Randy Newman's first wife.