Welcome! I am a teacher, a Comparative Literature and Childhood Studies scholar, and a Mellon Engaged Scholar Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. My work interrogates the many ways in which children in a range of 20th and 21st-century historical and cultural contexts are made to bear the burden of resolving adult anxieties over survival and vulnerability by being forced to embody an idealized and unrealistic form of superhuman resilience in the midst of trauma. I strive to bring to light narratives by and about child victim/survivors that both evidence the real damage caused by this burden and suggest alternative modes of survival that honor vulnerability and interdependence over individualistic triumph.
I specialize in multiethnic U.S., Latin American, and Dutch literature and cultural production. My work is interdisciplinary, drawing from childhood studies, disability studies, queer theory, critical race studies, and ethical philosophy. As a teacher-scholar, I am interested in translation, inclusive and dialogic pedagogies, and public humanities. I am passionately committed to increasing educational equity in the U.S.
Thank you for visiting my website! If you’d like to get in touch with me, you can do so here, or email me at sarah.ropp@utexas.edu.