Sarah is the Lorraine Sherley Professor of Literature in the English Department at TCU. An affiliate of both the Women and Gender Studies Program and the Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies Program, Sarah teaches courses in Writing Studies; American, global, and transatlantic literatures; authorship; archival methods; the history and praxis of American Studies; feminist inquiry methods; and public humanities.
Much of Sarah’s teaching involves mentoring and collaborating with students in the English Department’s graduate programs. She is especially proud of having co-authored a number of scholarly publications along with graduate students and to have collaborated in many interdisciplinary humanities projects (such as The Genius of Phillis Wheatley Peters initiative and the Teaching Transatlanticism website) with both graduate and undergraduate students.
Along with course offerings, Sarah’s teaching incorporates collaborative programs and workshops with educators, as well as an active agenda of public talks and conference sessions. (See her CV in the “About” section for examples.)
Sarah also cultivates opportunities for writing about her teaching through both traditional academic publications (e.g., peer-reviewed journal articles and books published by academic presses) and less formal venues such as web publishing devoted to teaching stories. Here are several examples of Sarah’s writing about her teaching and to support others’ teaching:
Open Access edition of Transatlantic Anglophone Literatures, 1776-1920, an anthology for teaching
“#MeToo Books: Entry Points for Men’s Understanding a Women’s Movement“
“The Best Books on Finding Home in American Storytelling“
“Fostering Global Learning at Home”
Digital edition of Teachers’ Writing Groups:
“Writing to Build Community in a Time of Stress”
Syllabi
These links provide copies of several of Sarah’s undergraduate and graduate syllabi from TCU.
Undergraduate Courses
Finding Home-Diasporas and Migrations: an intro-to-lit general education course
Two Projects from General Education Version of “Finding Home” Course
Feature story based on interview OR memoir of an experience of moving in search of home
Intertextual, comparative close reading
Finding Home-syllabus sample: A junior-level research seminar focused on diaspora, settlement, and resistance
Writing Across Cultural Differences: a cultural rhetorics writing course valuing diversity and inclusiveness
Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Literatures (2022)
Young Adult Literature in American Culture: A course originally envisioned along with several graduate students collaborating with me via a TCU Instructional Development Grant
Nineteenth-Century American Literature
Graduate Courses
Authorship (fall 2025)
American Literature as a Field of Study: Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Trends
Seminar in Transatlantic Print Culture of the Long Nineteenth Century, co-taught with Linda K. Hughes (2017)
Seminar in Transatlantic Print Culture: 2021 version
Seminar in archival scholarship
Cross-listed, Multi-disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Courses
Cultural Contact Zones: A lower-division Honors course that became a model for others’ classes on this topic
Writing Across Cultural Differences: a cultural rhetorics writing course valuing diversity and inclusiveness (cross-listed with Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies)
Feminist Inquiry, fall 2020
Major Projects for Feminist Inquiry:
Sarah Ruffing Robbins 