Sarah Hentges

Courses Taught

INT 208 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies

INT 495 Capstone in Interdisciplinary Studies

AME/INT/WGS 420/TEM 528 Feminist Praxis for Radical Self and Community Care

AME/INT/WGS 430/TEM 530 Embodied Social Justice: Racialized Trauma and Community Transformation

AME/ENG/WGS 318 Cultural Criticism and Theory: The Arts of Social Change

NUR/INT 331 Integrative Yoga: Theory and Practice for Self-Care and Holistic Healing

AME/ENG/WGS 304: Girls on Fire: Feminism, Activism, and the Future

AME/MUS/WGS 303: Hip-Hop America: Culture, Consciousness, and Community

AME/WGS 306: American Fitness: Culture, Community, and Transformation

AME/SSC/WGS 305: Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality

Research and teaching interests

Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary theory and practice; Intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability; cultural studies; young adult dystopian literature; hip-hop culture and movement; Black feminism; trauma, healing, and individual and collective transformation; embodied social justice.

Bio

Sarah started her career at UMA in 2009 as a Libra Fellow, tasked with starting an American Studies minor. She was hired as a full-time faculty member and assistant professor of American studies the following year and was promoted to full professor in 2022. Sarah is passionate about interdisciplinary studies and dedicates herself to advising students as they create self-designed majors to fit their personal, professional, and educational goals. She has coordinated the INT program since 2015 (and unofficially before then!). Sarah teaches a variety of courses, most of which are cross listed, from the intro courses in AME, INT, and WGS to 300 and 400-level courses in these interdisciplinary fields, as well as graduate courses for the trauma-Informed emergency management program (TEM).

Sarah received her PhD from Washington State University in 2006, her MA in Literature and Culture from Oregon State in 2000, and her BA in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1997 from Humboldt State University in northern California. During the 2018-19 academic year Sarah was a Fulbright scholar, the Danish Distinguished Chair of American Studies at the Center for American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. While she was a Fulbright she also presented her work in Norway and Portugal and taught a summer school course for an American studies program in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Alongside Sarah’s academic career, she has also taught a variety of fitness and yoga classes, and she is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance  and a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP). She also completed a certificate in Embodied Social Justice with The Embody Lab in 2021 and a 200-hour Trauma-Informed certification with YogaFit in 2024. She is a certified facilitator of JourneyDance™ and is working toward further certifications in yoga. Sarah teaches a weekly free yoga class via Zoom for UMA students, staff, and faculty and has offered yoga and movement workshops for healthcare professionals, teachers, and social service frontline workers.

Publications

Sarah has published widely on myriad topics, including her books: Girls on Fire: Transformative Heroines in Young Adult Dystopian Literature (2018); Women and Fitness in American Culture (2014); and Pictures of Girlhood: Modern Female Adolescence on Film (2006). Sarah also co-edited a collection of essays: Teaching Girls on Fire: Essays on Dystopian Young Adult Literature in the Classroom and many of her other publications also highlight the pedagogy of teaching American studies and women’s and gender studies. Her newest book, Demystifying American Yoga: Embodied Movement for INdividual and Collective Transformation, was published January 20, 2025.

Other interests

The Spiral Goddess Collective, a Center for Mind/Body Movement is Sarah’s laboratory and her art studio–the place where she puts into practice the theory and methods that she teaches about and writes about in the world of academia. She opened this space in downtown Bangor in October of 2022 to grow her Embodied Movement and Social Justice programs and to provide support and space for others to grow their own dreams and offerings. You can find more information about Sarah’s community work at www.thespiralgoddesscollective.com.