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Katherine Smith teaches medieval and early modern history, including courses on the Crusades, women and gender, war and society, witch-hunting, and the Renaissance and Reformation. She loves working with material culture and offers a course that covers the premodern history of Europe and the Mediterranean world through 100 objects.

Professor Smith's research focuses on the cultural world of monasticism in the Middle Ages. explored how monastic identity was negotiated through real and imaginary encounters with warfare and warriors; considered how monastic commentators drew on their training in biblical exegesis to make sense of the First Crusade. Her latest research explores the material and sensory world of medieval monasticism as shaped by objects, rituals, and daily routines. Recent publications include "Why Did Medieval Monks Sew?" (Journal of Medieval History 51/1 [2024]: 81-96) and "Light and Lightscapes in Medieval Monasticism" (Traditio 79 [2024]: 203-226).