Sarah A. Robert (she/ella)
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Global Gender & Sexuality Studies
Associate Professor
LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION
Specialty/Research Focus
Critical Policy Analysis; Gender Studies; Gender, Culture, and Equity; Global Issues; Educational Policy; Ethnography; Qualitative Research Methods; Politics of Education; Sociology of Education
Professional Summary:
Dr. Sarah A. Robert is an international education policy expert. She critiques how policy and politics shape and are shaped by the intersectional qualities of gender in global, South American, and US urban contexts. Her ethnographies and qualitative, social science-informed studies are concentrated on three areas: teachers’ work, school food, and curriculum/textbooks. As a first-gen, feminist, interdisciplinary public intellectual, she strives to demystify policy, to cultivate and support policy protagonists through teaching and long-term community collaborations, and to transform educational decision making into an inclusive process focused on realizing human rights and just transitions in educational institutions and for societies.
Education and Training:
- PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Educational Policy Studies
- MA, University of California, San Diego, Latin American Studies
- BA, University of Rochester, History and Political Science
Awards and Honors:
- Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award; UB Graduate School of Education; 2019-05-03;
Recent Publications:
Book:
- Robert, S. A. (2017). Neoliberal education reform: Gendered notions in global and local contexts. New York, NY: Routledge. 2016, Critics’ Choice Book Award of the American Educational Studies Association for making an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the Social Foundations of Education.
Journal Special Issue:
- Robert, S.A., Yu, M., & Sauerbraunn, F., & Özkazanç-Pan, B., Eds. (March, 2023). Special Issue: Intersectionality and education work during COVID-19 transitions. Gender, Work, and Organizations 30(2).
Journal Article:
- Robert, S.A., Yu, M., & Sauerbraunn, F., & Özkazanç-Pan, B. (2022.) Starting a dialogue in difficult times about intersectionality and education work. Gender, Work, and Organizations. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12896
- Yu, M., Edwards, E.B., Robert, S.A., Gonzales, S.M., & DeNicolo, C.P. (2022.) Remember. (Re)member. Re-member: Theorizing the process of healing, sustaining, and transforming as motherscholars. Peabody Journal of Education. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0161956X.2022.2055892
- Robert, S. A., Yu, M., Lewis, D.* (2021). Intersectionality for Contextualizing Teachers’ Work in Transnational Education Policy Research. Educational Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2021.1904930
Recent Presentations:
Invited Lectures:
- Robert, S.A. (2023, May). No title [informal talk]. Safety, Inclusion, Communities Interdisciplinary Group, Anglia Ruskin University.;
Conferences:
- Gaddis, J., & Robert, S.A. (2023, June 7-9). Global Perspectives on the Politics of School Food as Essential Care Infrastructure. The Third Global Carework Summit, University of Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica.;
- Robert, S.A., Chair. (2022, August 5-9). COVID-19 Impacts on Gendered Workplaces. A panel organized for Bureaucracies of Displacement, the 117th Annual Conference of American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Sex and Gender Section, Los Angeles, CA.;
- Gaddis, J. E. & Robert, S.A., Co-chairs. (2022, May 18-21). Transforming school food politics. A panel organized for the joint annual meeting of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and Association for the Study of Food and Society, Athens, GA.;
- Robert, S.A. (2021). Conflict, Policies-in-Process, and Policy Bundles: An anthropology of policy for challenging times. Paper accepted and to be presented at the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, October 7-11, 2020, Šibenic, Croatia. [postponed to online March 9-14, 2021];
Recent Grants:
Grant:
- Teaching, Gender, & Covid Policies Project.; Foundation and Research Organization; Associate Professor Fund for Global and International Research. Office of International Education.; Awarded; (08/22/2022-05/24/2024)
Recent Activities:
Professional Service:
- Associate Editor. Gender, Work, and Organizations.
09/16/2022-09/16/2024 - International Editorial Board Member. Pensamiento Educativo: Revista de Investigacion Educacional Latinoamericana (PEL)
09/13/2022-08/23/2024 - Elected Member-at-Large, Association for the Anthropology of Policy (ASAP).
10/04/2021-11/15/2024 - Former Director. (2011-2022). UB Social Studies Education Programs
03/01/2011-05/27/2022