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Faculty Spotlight: Professor Sarah Damaske, University Park

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Sarah Damaske, University Park

January 2, 2018

As a School, we are fortunate to have an accomplished faculty of varied research and teaching interests, as well as extraordinary academic accomplishments. Professor Sarah Damaske is that, and more.

Professor Damaske began her life in higher education as an undergraduate at Hamilton College where she received her B.A. in comparative literature, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She subsequently received her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from New York University, and spent two years at Rice University as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology. She joined the faculty at LER in 2011 as an Assistant Professor of Labor and Employment Relations and Sociology.  After establishing an exceptional record of research and teaching she was promoted last spring to Associate Professor with tenure.

As a faculty member she has taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, including:

  • Race, Gender, and Employment
  • Work-Life Policies and Practices
  • Sociology of the Family

Since joining the faculty, she has published more than a dozen referred articles, most in top scholarly journals.  She also has written articles aimed at sharing the results of her work with practitioners and the general public.  These articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, among other popular publications.  In addition, she has authored a highly acclaimed book titled For the Family? How Class and Gender Shape Women's Work that was published by the prestigious Oxford University Press and has a second book in progress.  And she has served as a featured speaker at numerous conferences. It is also notable that her research is widely reported by the media, having been cited in stories in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and by NPR, ABC Nightly News, and the BBC.

Recently, the Penn State Social Science Research Institute published an article on their website featuring Sarah’s latest research on gender and employment relationships.

LER faculty and students, however, recognize Professor Damaske as more than an accomplished scholar and teacher.  To faculty, she is also a valued colleague who steps up when the hard work of keeping an academic program running needs to be done.  She also is recognized as someone who is more interested in solving problems and getting things done, then winning esoteric debating points.  To her students she is someone who can push and inspire them to meet high expectations, while also exhibiting empathy and kindness.  In short, she personifies what we hope our School is all about.

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Sarah Damaske