Michael A. Smith is the Manager of Institutional Giving at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a non-profit arts-presenting organization that curates Pittsburgh’s 14-block Cultural District.  In this capacity, he has enabled the growth of the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and arts integration residencies in K-12 schools across the region. Michael is also a doctoral candidate at Duquesne University, writing on geocriticism and American railspace.  He has presented this research at the Modern Language Association Convention, the National Humanities Conference, and the American Literature Association conference.