Professor Smith is Mistress of Girton College, and Honorary Professor of Geography at Cambridge University.

Her research embraces the interdisciplinary world of housing studies, using questions about the cost, character and meaning of homes to address the problem of inequality and advance the pursuit of justice. In a series of projects spanning two decades and three continents, Professor Smith has: questioned the inequalities embedded in residential segregation; exposed the insecurities underpinning victimisation and fear of crime; recognised the challenge of housing for health; and confronted the tension between markets and an ethic of care.

For the past few years her work has focused on the character of, and links between, housing, mortgage and financial markets. Several projects are part of an ongoing collaboration with RMIT which draw comparisons between the housing and mortgage markets of the UK and Australia.