Sarah Higinbotham co-founded
Common Good Atlanta, a nonprofit that bridges Georgia’s colleges and universities with Georgia’s prisons since 2008. The program offers accredited college courses inside seven prisons five days a week, with more 70 volunteer faculty from six Atlanta universities teaching. They also offer a weekly, accredited course to people recently released from prison.
Sarah’s work is rooted the belief that human dignity flourishes — and communities become stronger — when people have more equitable access to higher education.
Sarah also teaches Shakespeare and early British literature at Emory’s Oxford College, where she mentors undergraduate students interested public service law. Her PhD is in early modern literature and her scholarship centers around the intersections of literature and law; she has written about the violence of the law, critical prison theory, and human rights for the
Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Contemporary Justice Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, College English, and the
Wake Forest Law Review. Her first, co-authored book is available from Oxford University Pres.
Sarah has received awards for her scholarship and activism from organizations such as The Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities; Emory University; Atlanta MLS; the Georgia Governor’s Office; and the Georgia Department of Corrections. She graduated from Leadership Atlanta in 2017 and remains an active alumna.