Sascha Goluboff Named Director of Community-Based Learning at Washington and Lee

W&L Office of Communications
March 11, 2020

Sascha L. Goluboff, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Washington and Lee University, has been named the university’s next director of community-based learning. W&L Provost Marc Conner announced the three-year appointment, which will begin on July 1.

Goluboff succeeds Tammi Hellwig, who has led the program as its inaugural director since 2017. Hellwig, who previously served as an assistant dean for clinic and externship administration and professor of practice at the law school, will contribute to the work of the W&L Law clinical programs, expanding pro bono legal representation of children in the immigration system. Additionally, she will offer courses in the undergraduate Law, Justice, and Society program that focus on these fields.

Goluboff, who came to W&L in 1999, teaches courses in cultural anthropology, including a community-based learning course titled “Narrating Our Stories: Culture, Society, and Identity,” taught at Augusta Correctional Center with both W&L and incarcerated students. She is trained as an instructor in the Inside-Out model from the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which facilitates dialogue and education across profound social differences, and currently serves as the program’s Virginia state coordinator. She holds bachelor’s degrees in sociology and anthropology and Russian studies from Colgate University, a master’s and doctorate in anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is currently pursuing a master of fine arts in fiction writing from Pacific University.

Goluboff’s research focuses on emotion in a variety of geographical and historical contexts. She is the author of “Jewish Russians: Upheavals in a Moscow Synagogue” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003) and has presented her work in numerous journals, workshops and public exhibitions. She is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society and serves as a member of W&L’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program advisory board and Writing Program Advisory Committee. Her past university service includes membership on the Institutional Review Board, the Faculty Review Committee, the University Board of Appeals and the planning committee for two Science, Society and the Arts conferences, among other appointments.

As director of community-based learning, Goluboff will further cultivate community-academic collaborations and work closely with the provost, academic deans, student affairs staff and others throughout the university to coordinate, support and lead W&L’s many programs and initiatives in community-based learning.

“I am honored to take on the directorship of the Office of Community-Based Learning at W&L,” said Goluboff. “Tammi Hellwig has laid a wonderful foundation for engaging with the community. I look forward to working with a variety of community partners as we foster and expand this excellent program. I’ve seen the wonderful results of such learning collaborations outside the traditional classroom setting, and I am excited to be a part of the larger CBL initiative.”

“I’m delighted that Sascha is taking on this role,” said Conner. “She is a proven leader and veteran department head, a deeply respected faculty member, and a teacher-scholar with expertise in community engagement areas. She brings an interest and passion to this work that will be crucial as we continue to support community-based learning and think about new ways to bring this work to our students, faculty, staff and community partners.”

As the inaugural director of the program, Hellwig was charged with developing common standards and unified vision for community-based learning at W&L. With support from the Provost’s Office and external grant funding, she worked with four experienced faculty and community partner pairs who spent two years participating in pedagogical development workshops and worked side-by-side to create new CBL courses that aligned with best practices from the field. The result was a common definition of community-based learning at the university, including course criteria and student learning outcomes.

“Tammi has been such a great leader on our campus and the larger Lexington and Rockbridge community,” said Conner. “As the inaugural director of community-based learning, she has established the program, created the office, coordinated relations with the community partners, established standards for CBL courses, and supported all the logistics and policies necessary for strong community engagement practices. She will definitely be missed, and I’m grateful for her three years of contributions to this university priority.”

“The Office of Community-Based Learning envisions a community transformed by faculty, community partners and students working and learning together to achieve a greater good,” said Hellwig. “While the work certainly isn’t done, I am proud of the strides this office has made since starting a few years ago. One of the most rewarding parts of my work has been the opportunity I’ve had to collaborate with remarkable colleagues, both within the university and throughout the broader Lexington community.

“Sascha’s appointment as faculty director is an exciting and significant step for the office,” Hellwig said. “I am confident that combining the expertise of the existing community-based learning staff with Sascha’s invaluable faculty perspective will deepen CBL pedagogy at W&L.”