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Sarah Ruffing Robbins

Sarah Ruffing Robbins, Ph.D.

Lorraine Sherley Professor of Literature

she/her/hers 817-257-5146 Reed Hall 118

Program Affiliations

AddRan College of Liberal ArtsEnglish  
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  • Rhetoric & Composition /
  • Gender & Sexuality /
  • American Literature

Education

Ph.D., English and English Education, American Studies focus, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1993
MA, English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1975
BA, English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1974
University of Maryland, European extension, focus of study: Italian
Agnes Scott College, focus of study: English, French, history

Courses Taught

American literature
Transatlantic literature
Women's literature and writing
Authorship
Global American literatures
History of American literature
19th- and 20th-century American literature
American Identities
Feminist Inquiry
Writing Across Cultural Differences

Areas of Focus

American Studies: Field History
Pre-1900 and 20th- and 21st-century American literatures
Public Humanities
Transatlantic Literature
Gender and Sexuality Studies with an Intersectional Emphasis
Rhetoric & Composition
Women’s Writing
Race and Ethnicity in American Culture 
Global and Diasporic Studies

  • Articles & Essays

    • Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. “Elaine Goodale Eastman’s Yellow Star as Counter-Narrative for American Indian History-Telling.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 23.1 (2024): 26-48.
    • Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. “Teaching Charles Alexander Eastman’s ‘The North American Indian’ in Dialogue with Elaine Goodale Eastman’s Yellow Star.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 23.1 (2024): 107-114.

    • Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. “Locating Phillis Wheatley through Transatlantic, Intertextual Teaching.” Symbiosis: A Journal of Transatlantic Literary & Cultural Relations 26.1 (Spring 2022): 1-24.
    • Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. “Pandemic Pedagogy: Lessons from Nineteenth-Century. Sentimentalism—Historicizing Empathy, Embracing Feeling, and Personalizing Disease in the Covid Era.” ESQ 67.1 (2021): 723-48.
    • Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. “Tom F. Wright’s Transatlantic Rhetoric as an American Studies Teaching Resource.” Journal of American Studies 55.4 (October 2021): 984-89.
    • Wehlburg, Catherine M., Sarah Ruffing Robbins, Rachel Daugherty, and Ashley Hughes. “GlobalEX: Creating a Collaborative Initiative for International and Domestic Undergraduate Students Focusing on Global Learning.” Innovative Higher Education 44.6 (2019): 453-67
    • Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. “Elaine Goodale Eastman, Modernist Author?: Re-visiting a Border-crossing Woman Writer’s Place in Literary History.” E-rea: Revue électronique d’études sur le monde. Anglophone Special Issue: Transnationalism and Modern American Women Writers 16.2, 2019.
    • Pullen, Ann W. Ellis and Sarah Ruffing Robbins. “Managing Worship, Mothering Missions: Children’s Prayerful Performances Linking the United States and Angola in the Early Twentieth Century.” International Bulletin of Mission Research 43.3 (2019): 211-224.
    • Hoermann-Elliott, Jacqueline, Sarah Ruffing Robbins, Whitney Lew James, and Meagan Gacke. “Collaborative Tactics in a Globally Focused Cocurricular Writing Program.” Composition Forum 42 (November 2019).
    • Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. Learning Legacies: Archive to Action through Women’s Cross-cultural Teaching. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 2017.
    • Hughes, Linda K. and Sarah R. Robbins, eds. Teaching Transatlanticism: Resources for Teaching Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Print Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh U Press, 2015. Related Website: https://teachingtransatlanticism.tcu.edu/
    • Robbins, Sarah, and Ann Ellis Pullen. Nellie Arnott’s Writings on Angola, 1905-1913: Missionary Narratives Linking Africa and America; Anderson: Parlor Press, 2011.
  • “Teaching Graphic Narratives”; keynote opening lecture for Humanities Texas spring institute for secondary educators on “Teaching and Understanding Literature.” Delivered via Zoom, February 2, 2021.
  • “American Literature(s): Expanding Landscapes of Inquiry, Shifting Foci for Humanities-Based Study”; keynote opening address for Humanities Texas Summer Institute for secondary educators on “Teaching the American Literary Tradition.” Delivered via Zoom, July 6, 2020.
  • “Re-imagining the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace,” JGLB Museum, Savannah, GA, October 2016
  • “Fauntleroy Forever: Why We Can’t Get Enough of that Little Lord.” American Studies Program, University at Trier, May 14, 2014
  • “Elaine Goodale and Charles (Ohiyesa) Eastmans’ Cross-Cultural Connections: Tracking the Limits of Assimilationist Teaching in Collaborative Writing.” American Studies Program, University at Saarbrucken, Germany, May 13, 2014
  • “Learning Legacies.” Invited lecture, University of Michigan Series of “Rackham at 100” public lectures honoring the 100th anniversary of the graduate school, October 26, 2012
  • “Composing Collaborations: Problematic Partnerships in Historical Context.” CCCC, Houston, TX, April 2016.
  • “Transatlantic Spaces, Collaborative Approaches: Women’s Pedagogy in Action in Hybrid, Liminal Work.” Society for the Study of American Women Writers Triennial International Convention, Philadelphia, PA, November 2015.
  • “Hull-House Conversations in Place, Across Time: Textual and Material Memory as Avenue to Social Action.” American Studies Association Convention, Toronto, Canada, October 2015
  • “Digital Transatlanticism.” MLA Convention, Vancouver, Canada, January 2015.
  • AddRan College of Liberal Arts, TCU, Award for Distinguished Achievement as a Teacher and Scholar, Humanities Winner (2020)
  • Award from TCU Student Affairs for Leadership of GlobalEx Co-curricular Program, “Inspiring students, empowering future leaders, promoting intercultural learning” (2019)
  • English Department Graduate Faculty Member of the Year (2018)
  • Michael R. Ferrari Award for Distinguished University Service and Leadership at TCU (2015)
  • Best edition award, honorable mention, Society for the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Awards Program, for Nellie Arnott’s Writings on Angola, 1905-1913 (2012)
  • English Department Graduate Faculty Member of the Year (student-selected—2012)
  • Outstanding Individual Scholarship Award, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kennesaw State for The Cambridge Introduction to Harriet Beecher Stowe (1 of 3; 2008)
  • Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Humanities, Georgia Humanities Council and State of Georgia Governor’s Office (2006)
  • CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title award, for Managing Literacy, Mothering America (2006)
  • Kennesaw State University Foundation Distinguished Professor (one university-wide award-winner per year; inaugural winner—2004-05)
  • Distinguished Scholarship Award for Kennesaw State University (one award-winner per year) for career-to-date work in research/creative activity (2004)
  • Regents of the University of Georgia Research in Education Award (UGA system-wide award for research in the “scholarship of teaching” [SOTL] tradition–2002)
  • Constance Rourke Prize (awarded by the American Studies Association for the best article in American Quarterly in a given year—1998)
  • Conference Directing Work and Applied Research Collaborations: Society for the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Conference, Denver, October 2012; co-directed with Maria Sanchez
  • Passages in American Literature, co-consultant with Lucy Maddox of Georgetown University for film series proposal, IS Film Productions, Washington, D.C. Community Research and Creative Learning conference, June 2002
  • Bridges Community Performances project conference, June 2001
  • “Who’s Speaking, Who’s Listening?” June 2000 conference, KSU
  • Faculty Investigator, ASA Crossroads Research Project, 1997-99
  • Project Outreach Retreats and Conferences; 1996, 1997, 1998–KSU
  • Literature, Culture and the American Experience–conference, October 1998
  • National Writing Project, commissioned study of teacher leadership paradigms at various NWP sites, with associated development of training curricula for NWP
Modern Language Association (MLA), Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), National Women’s Studies Association, American Studies Association (ASA), Rhetoric Society of America (RSA), Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition, Multi-ethnic Literature of the US (MELUS), several individual author societies 
  • Co-editor: "Interventions": a book series on 19th-century American literatures published by Edinburgh University Press (current)
  • Editorial Board: The Bedford Anthology of American Literature (current)
  • Editorial Board for Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers (2007-09)
  • Editorial Board, The National Writing Project, NWP@Work Publications (2006-2013)
  • Vice President, Society for the Study of American Women Writers, 2010-2012
  • Chair, American Literature Section of Modern Language Association (MLA), 2009
  • Member, Women’s Committee, American Studies Association, 2007-2010
  • Member, Program Committee, Modern Language Association, MLA, 2008-2010
  • Member, Advisory Board, Society for the Study of American Women Writers, 2006-08
  • Consulting Scholar, Imagining America Task Force on Tenure and Public Work, 2005-08
  • MLA Division on Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century American Literature, 2000-2004

Last Updated: January 07, 2025

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