Dr Sarah Becker

Dr. Becker is a sociologist, criminologist, and ethnographer whose work focuses on community-based processes that address or exacerbate social challenges. She uses qualitative and quantitative methodologies to study sexual violence, collective reactions to crime, formal and informal policing strategies, and approaches to community engagement in a broad range of contexts including industry development and implementation of carbon capture technologies (CCS/CCUS). She currently serves as Director of LSU’s Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership (CCELL) and Professor of African and African American Studies with a joint appointment in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Recent Publications

• Fall, Salimata and Sarah Becker. 2025. Interracial Relationships in Black Communities. Handbook of Interracial Relationships and Mental Health. NY: Routledge.
• Becker, Sarah, Ifeyinwa Davis, and Crystal Paul. 2025. Looking at Race and Ethnicity—and Power. Chapter 1 in Sociology in Action: Race and Ethnicity by Kathleen Korgen and Maxine P. Atkinson. New York: Sage Publications, 2e.
• Datta, Heeya and Sarah Becker. 2025. “An Inner Core Feeling?”: Nationalism, Western Capitalism, and Bengali Women’s Class-Based Mothering Ideologies. Family Relations. 74: 707-724.
• Becker, Sarah and Justine Tinkler. 2021. “This is My Girl”: How Men’s Desires Obscure Women’s Sexual Aggression Experiences in Public Drinking Settings. Social Currents 8 (1): 86-101.
• Becker, Sarah and Castel Sweet. 2020. “What Would I Look Like?”: How Exposure to Concentrated Disadvantage Shapes Hip-Hop Artists’ Connections to Community. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 6(1): 61-75.

Recent Grants

• (2025) U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE): American History and Civics Education National Activities-Seminars Grant. Civic Institute Consultant for PIs Y. Clinton J. James, and C. Morrison, YALA.
• (2024) Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders 2025. U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs / International Research and Exchanges Board Inc. (IREX). ($268,347.59) PI and Academic Director, with PI Oliver Crocco.
• (2024) US Department of Energy (DOE) FOA 3014: Regional Initiative for Technical Assistance Partnerships (RITAP) to Advance Deployment of Basin-Scale Carbon Transport and Storage and Community Engagement. Gulf of Mexico Basin Opportunities (GuMBO). ($787,563 LSU sub) Co-PI with LSU PI Mehdi Zeidouni and Co-PI Keith Hall.
• (2023) Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders 2024. U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs / International Research and Exchanges Board Inc. (IREX). ($280,996.54). Co-PI and Academic Director, with PI Laura Dean and Leadership Director Oliver Crocco.
• (2023) Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Regional Initiative to Accelerate Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Deployment. ($390,228, LSU sub) “Texas Louisiana Carbon Management Community (TXLACMC).” Co-PI with PIs M. Zeidouni (LSU), D. van der Kolk (UT Austin), D. Chen (Lamar), J.W.Choic (Texas A&M Kingsville), D.G. Hatzignatiou (University of Houston), C. Ehlig-Economides (University of Houston), R. Krishnamoorti (University of Houston), and K.Wowk (Texas A&M Corpus Christi).

Recently Taught Courses

• AAAS/SOCL 2511: Race Relations
• WGS 2900: Gender, Race, and Women’s Basketball in Greece, Croatia, and the U.S.
• WGS 4500: Sports, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity in Greece and the U.S.
• AAAS 3902: Race, Sports, and Civic Engagement