Sara Sterling

Sara Sterling is a Professor of Liberal Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Savannah, GA (2022–present). Previously, she held roles including Assistant Professor in the Department of China Studies (2020–21), Lecturer at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (2015–20), and Visiting Scholar at the Catholic University of Leuven (2013). Her research focuses on Chinese cultural dynamics, material culture, and cross-cultural design, with a specialization in wedding traditions, sustainable fashion, and migration studies.

Education: Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from KU Leuven, M.A. in European studies from KU Leuven, and B.A. in history from Fordham University. She has also served as a Research Assistant at Fordham University (1999–2003) and Program Coordinator at Walworth-Seely Public Library (2014–15).

Research interests span speculative design methodologies, cultural intermediation, and the intersection of tradition and modernity in Chinese society. Notable projects include studies on Suzhou's Tiger Hill Wedding Market, sustainable bridal fashion trends, and the sociocultural implications of migration in urban markets.

Her work has been recognized with grants such as the Research Development Fund Grant (2017) and China Post-Doctoral Science Foundation Grant (2011). She is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (2018).

Advising and grants include leadership in the ArcInTex Suzhou initiative (2019) and collaborations with institutions like Tsinghua University and the Beijing Center for Chinese Entrepreneur Studies. Her research often bridges anthropology, design, and sociology to explore contemporary cultural transformations.

Labs/Teams: Co-organizer of ArcInTex Suzhou (2019), part of interdisciplinary teams at SCAD and Tsinghua University, and active in global conferences on cross-cultural design and migration studies.