The College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and the University's Office of Research reaffirm their commitment to faculty research with the joint appointment of Sarah Workman as assistant director of proposal development for the humanities.

In A&S, Workman will elevate research achievement and recognition by helping faculty identify funding sources for their work. She also will assist them with writing grants and other proposals and with coordinating nominations for honorary awards.

As part of her appointment in the Office of Research, Workman will develop broader grant proposals across multiple colleges that connect with the humanities.

“Sarah will support the College’s strategic goals by positioning faculty for continued research success and recognition,” says Alan Middleton, associate dean of research and scholarship in A&S. “Drawing on her background as a researcher, educator and administrator, she will help them expand their ability to carry out scholarly work, promoting a culture of research on campus."

Christina Leigh Docteur G'03, G'11, director of proposal support services in the Office of Research, says Workman brings a "uniquely honed skill-set" to humanistic inquiry. "Sarah is well-positioned to not only support humanities departments and programs, but also provide talent and insight to further integrate humanistic perspectives within a wide range of interdisciplinary research efforts across campus," she adds.  

Workman comes to A&S from Georgetown University, where she was a learning design specialist in the Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship (CNDLS). Among her accomplishments was overseeing a multi-year faculty-staff cohort that explored best practices for online teaching and hybrid learning. She also designed and taught courses for the writing and Jewish civilization programs.

Before joining CNDLS in 2016, Workman developed and taught first-year writing and literature courses at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also earned a Ph.D. in English.

Workman is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a 2016 dissertation fellowship from the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research into women's literature was anthologized in "A Quest of Her Own: Essays on the Female Hero in Modern Fantasy" (McFarland & Company, 2014).

Fluent in Spanish and proficient in Hebrew, Workman also has worked at The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., the Adam Institute for Democracy and Peace in Jerusalem (Israel), and Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland.

She earned a master's degree in English from Georgetown and a bachelor's degree in English and Spanish from Cornell University.