Sarah L. Orsak

Sarah L. Orsak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Virginia, where she researches the racialized intersections of disability, Blackness, and gender. Her work critically examines how disability functions as a racial category within scholarly fields and institutional practices.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Rutgers University—New Brunswick

Dr. Orsak's scholarship centers on the co-constitution of race and disability, with particular focus on anti-Blackness in disability frameworks and the politics of intersex athletic regulations. Her research interrogates how able-bodied normalcy is produced through racialized and gendered exclusions in sports, literature, and media. Key methodological approaches include Black feminist theory, critical disability studies, and postcolonial analysis.

Analysis of her publications reveals consistent engagement with the racial politics of bodily norms across historical and contemporary contexts. Her work demonstrates how disability discourse has been whitened in academic and cultural institutions, while simultaneously exposing the specific violences enacted against Black disabled bodies. Recurring themes include the weaponization of ableism in sports governance, the erasure of Blackness in disability narratives, and the colonial legacies shaping contemporary bodily regulations.

Scientific Awards:

• Rising Scholar Postdoctoral Fellowship

Dr. Orsak has secured research funding from the Mellon Foundation and Rutgers Center for Research on Women. She actively contributes to academic community building as incoming co-chair of the Critical Disability Studies Caucus of the American Studies Association and through her membership in UVA's Disability Studies Initiative, where she collaborates on interdisciplinary projects examining disability justice frameworks.

Her institutional engagement extends to developing curricular initiatives at the intersection of disability studies and critical race theory within the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.