Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Lockridge for reaching Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Southern Maine! Sarah teaches for the Geography-Anthropology Program (GYA) in the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. Her research focuses on gender and economic development, social justice, and environmental sustainability with particular emphasis on women’s rights are human rights, indigenous rights as impacted by climate change, as well as tourism and cultural heritage in Africa. Her interest in international development trends in the Global South began as a Peace Corps, Environment Volunteer living in a rural village among the Bamana people of Mali, West Africa. After her service, she attended graduate school receiving both her M.A. and PhD in Anthropology from American University, Washington D.C.
Sarah is a recent recipient of The Faculty Senate Award for Teaching Excellence within the College of Management and Human Service. She teaches undergraduate courses that critique social and environmental issues while also providing students the research skills they need to produce impactful projects that contribute solutions to existing problems: Importantly, her courses provide students the opportunity to understand the value of public service by engaging them in rigorous applied research projects from Maine and beyond.
As a faculty mentor, Sarah’s students showcase their work during USM’s Annual Thinking Matters Symposiums and receive UROP grants to fund their research projects. For example, GYA minor, Dylan Bell’s (’21) Maine-based UROP project, “Shifting the Paradigm: Youth Leadership at Maine Seeds of Peace,” studies the Maine Seeds of Peace: Paradigm Shifter Program and its impact on participants. Her findings were shared with the Maine Seeds of Peace Educators team and used to support the effectiveness of their program outcomes. GYA major, Isabel Smith (’24), received Best GYA Capstone for her internationally-based UROP project, “Crafting Livelihoods: The Economic and Social landscape of Pottery Production in San Marcos Tlapazola, Oaxaca.” Isabel’s engaged fieldwork in rural Mexico focuses on the impacts of global tourism on indigenous Zapotec female potters and the socio-economic strategies they use to navigate the rapid onset of globalization in their region. This experience provided Isabel the courage to apply to the Peace Corps as a Health Volunteer in Cameroon. At the completion of her service, she plans to apply to a PhD program in applied anthropology.