Sara Keene

Sara with Cole.jpg

After attending numerous community colleges in both California and Colorado, I returned to Columbia College in 2000 – the site where I began my academic career – with the intention of completing only a two-year program that led to an occupational degree. However, my accidental encounter with Ted Hamilton and Paula Clarke resulted in an extraordinary life change. As they challenged my worldview in every conceivable way, I began to understand the complexity of the human condition and the novel challenges posed to contemporary societies. I also began to envision my life path in radically different ways. I went on to graduate from Columbia College with honors, transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz where I studied Anthropology (and graduated summa cum laude), conducted an internship in India with UNICEF and earned a Master of Science degree in Development Studies from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Upon my return from London, I taught introductory anthropology, sociology, and contemporary dance courses at Columbia College before beginning a doctoral program at Cornell University.  At present, I am a PhD candidate in the department of Development Sociology at Cornell, and am conducting fieldwork in northern California on rural economic development and social change.

UC Santa Cruz Anthropology Department

Knowledge Community on Children in India, UNICEF

SOAS Development Studies Department

Cornell Sociology of Development Department

The Wrong Prescriptions (Letter to the Editor March/April 2008 in Change: A Magazine of Higher Learning)

Listening to Students: Higher Education and the American Dream: Why the "Status Quo" Won't Get Us There (November/December 2008, Change: A Magazine of Higher Learning)