Kevin Smith completed his M.A. (1990) and Ph.D. (1992) in Anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. His main area of research is in the archaeology of the southeastern United States, with special interests in the late prehistoric chiefdoms of Middle Tennessee (ca. A.D. 900-1500), early frontier period of Tennessee (ca. A.D. 1780-1820), and African-American lifeways from slavery through reconstruction.

Major on-going current research includes the Castalian Springs Mounds Archaeological Project (2005-2015), various slave housing projects, and miscellaneous pending field projects from frontier forts to Middle Woodland mounds.

Smith began teaching classes as an adjunct at MTSU in 1988 and has been a full-time faculty member since 1994.

He currently serves as:

• Vice President/Editor for the Middle Cumberland Archaeological Society
• MTSU representative and Vice Chair of the Tennessee Archaeological Advisory Council
• Archaeological expertise and Vice Chair of the Tennessee State Historic Preservation Review Board
• Tennessee Council for Professional Archaeology: Immediate Past President and Board Member (ex officio)
• Co-editor for the e-journal Tennessee Archaeology

• 2014. [M.C. Moore, K.E. Smith, A. Deter-Wolf, and E.L. Beahm]. Distribution and Context of Worked Crystalline Artifacts from the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee. Southeastern Archaeology 33(1):25-41.
• 2013. [E.L. Beahm and K.E. Smith] Negative Painted Plates and Bowls from the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee. Tennessee Archaeology 7(1):83-102.
• 2013. Tennessee's Ancient Pygmy Graveyards: The "Wonder of the Western Country." Tennessee Archaeology 7(1):42-75.
• 2012. Discovery and Early Investigations of the Dover Quarries by Parmenio E. Cox and Warren K. Moorehead, 1926-1932. Tennessee Archaeology 6(1-2):164-174.
• 2009 (Rev. 2012). [with M.C. Moore]. Archaeological Expeditions of the Peabody Museum in Middle Tennessee, 1877-1884. Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Archaeology, Research Series 16.
• 2009. [with J.V. Miller]. Speaking with the Ancestors: Mississippian Stone Statuary of the Tennessee-Cumberland Style. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
• 2009. [with E.L. Beahm]. Corrected Provenance for the Long Nosed God Mask from a "Cave Near Rogana, Tennessee." Southeastern Archaeology 28(1):117-121.
• 2006. [with M.C. Moore, E. Breitburg, and M.B. Trubitt). "One Hundred Years of Archaeology at Gordontown: A Fortified Misssissippian Town in Davidson County, Tennessee." Southeastern Archaeology Volume 25(1):89-109.
• 2000. Bledsoe Station: Archaeology, History and the Interpretation of the Middle Tennessee Frontier, 1770-1820. Tennessee Historical Quarterly LIX(3):174-187.
• 2000. Tennessee's History through Archaeology: A Special Issue of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly. Tennessee Historical Quarterly LIX(3):136-137.