‘A Return to My Roots’

Provost and Dean of the Faculty Daphne Lamothe has had an especially busy last few years. In addition to becoming provost in July 2024, she published her second book, Black Time and the Aesthetic Possibility of Objects. Late 2025 saw the book chosen as the winner of the Modern Language Association’s William Sanders Scarborough Prize, which honors the best scholarship of Black American culture or literature. 

Though Lamothe’s name is on the award, she credits her peers and Smith as an institution with helping her get here. She recalls how, back when she was an associate professor, chair of the Department of Africana Studies, and working toward being promoted to full professor, then-Provost Michael Thurston had stepped in and supported what she needed to do to finish her book and succeed.

“I strive to take up the mantle and do for faculty what [Thurston] did for me, because it’s so important to us and our own satisfaction, but also what we can give to students as teachers,” she says. “When faculty are recognized in these ways, it’s a testament to us as individuals as well as the fact that the college is living up to its commitment of supporting all facets of the work faculty do.”

Following her win, Lamothe reflected on the award, celebrating scholarship, and future projects.

Your first book, Inventing the New Negro: Narrative, Culture, and Ethnography, won the honorable mention for the William Sanders Scarborough Prize in 2008. Being named as 2024’s winner must have felt like such a cool, full circle moment.
“It really was. My husband was actually the one who did a search on the prize’s website and told me, ‘You’re the only person who shows up twice.’ It feels good to be recognized by your peers in that way. When I look back on my first book, I could tell that I was a young scholar, and there were a few times I remember thinking, ‘Was [me winning honorable mention] a fluke?’ In my new book, I can see that I felt much more sure of my voice and what I wanted to say. Now, I can tell myself, ‘I don’t think it was a fluke.’”

What was your reaction when you found out that you’d won?
“Honestly, shock. I get so many emails as provost now, so at first I looked quickly and thought it was just some general announcement from the MLA [Modern Language Association, which awards the William Sanders Scarborough Prize each year] or somebody asking for something administrative. I was clearing out my inbox when I saw it, and I was floored. 

“I really put not only a lot of research, but a lot of heart and soul into this book, and when you write something, you never know who’s going to read it, if people are going to like it, if they’re going to understand what you’re trying to say or argue. Getting the news felt like this lightning bolt, like, ‘Oh, wow, it landed.’

“I became provost less than a year after the book was published, so I had taken a hard turn away from scholarship to focus more on this leadership role within the college, so celebrating this award also felt like a nice return to my roots, in a way.”

Were you able to go to the award ceremony? What was it like?
“It was really fun. One of the [other awardees] I sat next to was actually a colleague of [Professor of Jewish Studies and of Comparative Literature] Justin Cammy. On the other side, I had a conversation with someone who won an honorable mention for his work translating a book by a Caribbean writer named Aimé Césaire. I study Caribbean literature, so we talked about his work as well. It’s such a small world; we had only just met, but we were all cheering each other on. At the end, there were also a few people who were getting lifetime achievement-type awards, and their speeches were so inspiring.”

You’ve got no shortage of things going on as provost, but do you have any plans for future books or other scholarly works?
“It's a dream; I would love to. I had the germ of an idea for my next book when I finished the last one, and it has not been nurtured or watered. It's still just a germ of an idea, but with every year that I'm in the office as provost, I get a little more familiar with the demands of the job and a little more efficient. And so my next goal for myself is to carve out tiny little bits of time for reading and writing.”