About

Dr. Sarah Beth Kennedy has been a tourist, a tour guide, a themed attraction performer, a costume character, and a tourist photographer and salesperson. This kaleidoscope of lenses directs her scholarship on tourism and has led her to focus in particular on embodiment and affect as vital to tourist experience.

Sarah received her Ph.D. in Communication and Rhetoric at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in May 2021 following her dissertation work on tourism to Sleepy Hollow, NY. She studies place rhetorics, especially in themed tourist spaces, with a focus on the affective.

After completing her doctoral program, Sarah advised Individual Studies students at Hudson Valley Community College, where she continues to teach English courses with the goal of equipping students with rhetorical tools and healthy academic and writing practices that offer them both personal meaning and professional benefit. Sarah is currently an academic administrator working in international education, using her theoretical background in place studies and experience teaching and advising to support first-year abroad programs at a private research university.

Vegan since 2017 following a decade of vegetarianism, Sarah is a strong advocate for animal rights. She is an experienced humane educator and researches animal rights rhetorics. Sarah sees tourism as a vital area of education around animals and believes wholeheartedly in the work of animal sanctuaries.

It is important to Sarah not to maintain a social media presence. You can find her on LinkedIn and here!