Sara Black

Sara Black is a Lecturer in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where she contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of geography, social justice, and critical theory. She is affiliated with the Sage Lab and teaches courses such as Environment and Society and Food, Farms, and Famine.

• Ph.D. in Geography, University of Georgia
• B.S. in Ecology & B.A. in Anthropology, University of Georgia

Her research centers on racial capitalism, settler colonialism, abolition, carceral geographies, urban political ecology, and feminist and decolonial methods. She investigates how food systems, land use, and urban development intersect with systems of incarceration and racialized displacement. Her work emphasizes place-making, solidarity, and transformative justice in both rural and urban contexts.

The trends in her publications reveal a consistent engagement with prison abolition and food justice, particularly through community-based and activist scholarship. Her recent articles explore carceral landscapes, pedagogical liberation, and the spatial politics of resistance, often combining ethnographic insight with radical theory.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• 1st Place, Undergraduate Paper Prize
• Invited talks at institutions such as the University of Georgia and the Alabama Center for Architecture
• Presentations at major conferences including the American Association of Geographers and Dimensions of Political Ecology

Sara Black mentors through collective learning models and has been involved in co-learning collectives that rehumanize academic spaces. While specific grants are not listed, her collaborative research and publications suggest active engagement in scholarly networks focused on racial and environmental justice. She contributes to both academic and public discourse through journals like Antipode and Gender, Place and Culture, as well as mainstream outlets like Mold Magazine and Fence Magazine.

She is associated with the Sage Lab at RPI and participates in collaborative research initiatives that align academic work with liberatory aims.