A R T S , E D U C AT I O N & I N N O VAT I O N
IN PURSUIT OF THE
COMMON GOOD by MICHELLE FLOYD
An assistant professor of English at Oxford College, Sarah Higinbotham continues to work with state prisons to provide incarcerated men and women access to higher education.
Teaching students at a private college and teaching people who are incarcerated in state prisons poses two totally different challenges, but they are what make professor Sara Higinbotham whole. Higinbotham in 2008 helped found Common Good Atlanta, an organization that provides incarcerated men and women access to higher education in prisons around Georgia. Now, she serves as an assistant professor of English at Oxford College of Emory University. “Teaching bridges the divide that exists between people who go to college and people who go to prison,” said Higinbotham, whose uncle was in and out of prison during her life. “Oxford is geographically isolated and more traditional—it’s a beautiful celebration of what higher education can do. Both [colleges and prisons] are places where there is a lot of innate intellectual curiosity.”
36 The Newton
