Sarabeth Rambold

Dr. Sarabeth Rambold earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Rochester in May 2026. Her research explores how systems of confinement shaped early American lives and the ways individuals carved out spaces for intellectual agency and autonomy within those systems. Her work has appeared in Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal and History of Education Quarterly.

Her current project, tentatively titled “‘The Sphere of Woman is Eminently Practical’: Women’s Intellectual Labor in the American Home, 1783–1860,” examines how women forged intellectual lives within the expanding care economy, revealing how domestic spaces functioned not only as sites of care but also as sites of intellectual production. As industrialization increasingly defined the boundaries between public and private life, women’s educational opportunities expanded even as prevailing ideals continued to locate them within the home. Rather than focusing primarily on prominent figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Fuller, the project illuminates the experiences of the many educated women who transformed domestic spaces into centers of intellectual life.

During the 2024–25 academic year, Sarabeth served as a Predoctoral Fellow at the Fisher Center for the Study of Gender and Justice at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She is also committed to developing innovative ways of communicating history to students and has taught courses at the University of Rochester, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and through the Rochester Education Justice Initiative, a college-in-prison program.