About
Dr. Sarah Beth Kennedy has found a few power sources in this world.
Themed spaces.
Sarah’s first job was as a photographer and salesperson at a local brand-themed tourist attraction, where she later joined the entertainment department and spent a good deal of time thinking through the phenomenology of customer service inside a mascot costume. From the entertainment department to the classroom to the farmed animal sanctuary where Sarah led tours as a humane educator, the context of place has been a lifelong interest, influence, and power.
Sarah’s research explores place rhetorics, especially in themed tourist spaces, with a focus on the affective. She uses Atlas Obscura when planning travel to incredible results.
Writing.
Always a reader and writer, Sarah started explaining how writing worked to classmates early on and was excited to find her college willing to pay her for this on the days she wasn’t dancing around in a brand mascot costume. Sarah was a writing tutor at each of the three institutions where she studied—Elizabethtown College, Penn State University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Today, Sarah is proud to teach fall English Composition I and II courses at Hudson Valley Community College, where she strives to equip students with rhetorical tools for framing their own arguments convincingly and humanely as well as the confidence around written and verbal communication that students need to express their perspectives and experiences.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s expertise in rhetoric and argumentation serves her well professionally and in navigating life. Her writing talent has positioned her as the ghost writer of some relatively important text as she helps many confidants “create language” to explain complicated systems and processes clearly.
Academic advisors.
Sarah’s academic advisors as an undergraduate were the consistent, reliable “guide on the side” (no sage on the stage!) she needed to make college the meaningful, human-building experience that she now knows higher education can be. After completing her Ph.D., Sarah became an academic advisor to Individual Studies students at Hudson Valley Community College, and she saw even more clearly the openings that higher education can create for people to improve themselves, their lives, and their communities. Academic advisors enable students to find these openings and make informed decisions about their educational goals and paths.
As an academic administrator today, Sarah works closely with academic advisors with deep respect for the intensity and complexity of their roles and an understanding of their position as student advocates. Elevating academic advisors’ expertise and input is a professional goal for Sarah.
Animals.
Vegan since 2017 following a decade of vegetarianism, Sarah supports intersectional animal rights advocacy. Veganism is about minimizing the harm you do to animals, not about purity of diet or body: if you can’t change your diet, think about other ways your life intersects with animals’ lives. Can you buy an alternative or secondhand fabric instead of wool? Can you skip the zoo and aquarium and spend your money somewhere you can feel good about?
Vegan restaurants do the place-based, embodied argumentation work Sarah thought about for years in grad school. If they aren’t painted green, they’re doing that work well; if they’re themed, they’re doing that work exceptionally!