Sarah Socorro Hurtado
Associate Professor; Assoc Dean, Community Support
What I do
Dra. Sarah Socorro Hurtado is an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Interim Associate Dean for Community Support and Engagement in the Morgridge College of Education. In this role, Dra. Hurtado engages in critical scholarship, teaching, and service aimed at making institutions more equitable. Her research focuses on campus sexual violence and how institutions contribute to the perpetuation of this issue with a specific focus on the role and responsibility of faculty members. She teaches required research courses for the MA and Doctoral level students as well as several electives including College Student Development Theory, Critical Race Theory, and a seminar on campus sexual violence.Specialization(s)
higher education, sexual violence, faculty, Critical Race theory, critical qualitative research, compliance culture, institutional betrayal
Professional Biography
Dra. Sarah Socorro Hurtado is an Associate Professor who engages in scholarship, teaching, and service aimed at making institutions more equitable. Specifically, she focuses on examining and addressing how institutional policies and practices contribute to the perpetuation of sexual violence and how power and responsibility can be leveraged to transform institutions.
Her prior work has examined how the politicization of sexual violence, neoliberal institutional logics, entrenched academic and student affairs divides, and limited assessment and understanding of campus climate sustain rape culture and limit meaningful prevention efforts. She engages in partnerships with students, faculty, and community organizations to develop survivor-centered strategies for institutional change. Her expertise on campus sexual violence and institutional accountability also informs public and practitioner-oriented conversations about higher education through invited talks, media engagement, and applied resources. Her current projects include a study on how Latinx families engage in conversations about consent and bodily autonomy and a study on the impact of federal policies on institutional efforts.
In her teaching, Dra. Hurtado cultivates equity-minded, critically engaged learning spaces that invite students to question dominant assumptions about knowledge, power, and learning. Grounded in critical and liberatory pedagogies, she designs courses that honor students’ lived experiences, foreground marginalized ways of knowing, and encourage deep reflection on how institutional structures produce and sustain inequity. Across master’s and doctoral coursework, she prioritizes scaffolded learning, applied critical analysis, and opportunities for students to translate theory into action in ways that align with their identities, values, and professional goals.
While pursuing her PhD in higher education at Indiana University Bloomington, she served as a Project Associate for the Center for Postsecondary Research. Specifically, she worked with the National Survey of Student Engagement Institute for Effective Educational Practice. In her role, she worked with institutions to better utilize their NSSE data to inform practice. Prior to that, she worked as a Coordinator of Student Development at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for three years. She received her Masters from Indiana University Bloomington and her Bachelors from the University of Redlands.
Dra. Hurtado is also the co-host of DU Higher Ed's podcast, Mile Higher Ed: https://morgridge.du.edu/hedpodcast
Her prior work has examined how the politicization of sexual violence, neoliberal institutional logics, entrenched academic and student affairs divides, and limited assessment and understanding of campus climate sustain rape culture and limit meaningful prevention efforts. She engages in partnerships with students, faculty, and community organizations to develop survivor-centered strategies for institutional change. Her expertise on campus sexual violence and institutional accountability also informs public and practitioner-oriented conversations about higher education through invited talks, media engagement, and applied resources. Her current projects include a study on how Latinx families engage in conversations about consent and bodily autonomy and a study on the impact of federal policies on institutional efforts.
In her teaching, Dra. Hurtado cultivates equity-minded, critically engaged learning spaces that invite students to question dominant assumptions about knowledge, power, and learning. Grounded in critical and liberatory pedagogies, she designs courses that honor students’ lived experiences, foreground marginalized ways of knowing, and encourage deep reflection on how institutional structures produce and sustain inequity. Across master’s and doctoral coursework, she prioritizes scaffolded learning, applied critical analysis, and opportunities for students to translate theory into action in ways that align with their identities, values, and professional goals.
While pursuing her PhD in higher education at Indiana University Bloomington, she served as a Project Associate for the Center for Postsecondary Research. Specifically, she worked with the National Survey of Student Engagement Institute for Effective Educational Practice. In her role, she worked with institutions to better utilize their NSSE data to inform practice. Prior to that, she worked as a Coordinator of Student Development at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for three years. She received her Masters from Indiana University Bloomington and her Bachelors from the University of Redlands.
Dra. Hurtado is also the co-host of DU Higher Ed's podcast, Mile Higher Ed: https://morgridge.du.edu/hedpodcast
Degree(s)
- Ph.D., Higher Education, Indiana University Bloomington, 2018
- M.Ed., Higher Education and Student Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington, 2010
- BA, Speech Pathology, University of Redlands, 2008
Professional Affiliations
- Association for the Study of Higher Education
- American Educational Research Association
Media Sources
Research
As a critical higher education scholar, I engage in work that centers around two core beliefs: 1) all inequities are interrelated and all are maintained by disproportionate power structures including white supremacy, patriarchy, and (cis)heterosexism. Second, educational institutions actively contribute to the replication of these power structures. Below I articulate the primary threads of my scholarly expertise.
Critically Investigating the Replication of Inequities that Contribute to Rape Culture. In this thread, I investigate federal and institutional policies, structures, and procedures that contribute to the inequities that contribute to the continued existence of sexual violence. I call attention to the way institutional structures have caused more harm and have not been successful in preventing violence. I strive to not only call attention to the shortcomings of our current policies and educational efforts, but to identify specific, strategic recommendations that can facilitate transformative, culture change to make our intuitions more equitable and violence-free.
Critically Interrogating Power and Responsibility for Eliminating Sexual Violence. In this thread, I argue against historical bifurcation of responsibility regarding eliminating sexual violence and call on those with institutional power to leverage their power to engage in efforts to eliminate sexual violence. Additionally, I challenge the reliance on compliance and urge institutions to move beyond compliance in their educational and prevention efforts.
Critically Investigating the Replication of Inequities that Contribute to Rape Culture. In this thread, I investigate federal and institutional policies, structures, and procedures that contribute to the inequities that contribute to the continued existence of sexual violence. I call attention to the way institutional structures have caused more harm and have not been successful in preventing violence. I strive to not only call attention to the shortcomings of our current policies and educational efforts, but to identify specific, strategic recommendations that can facilitate transformative, culture change to make our intuitions more equitable and violence-free.
Critically Interrogating Power and Responsibility for Eliminating Sexual Violence. In this thread, I argue against historical bifurcation of responsibility regarding eliminating sexual violence and call on those with institutional power to leverage their power to engage in efforts to eliminate sexual violence. Additionally, I challenge the reliance on compliance and urge institutions to move beyond compliance in their educational and prevention efforts.
Areas of Research
sexual violence
power
responsibility
policy
action
Featured Publications
. (2024). Navigating the Political Dangers of Critical Approaches to Sexual Violence Work. New Directions for Higher Education. Research Dangerously: The Transformative Possibilities Of A Scholarship Of Consequence In Pushing Barriers In Educational Research And Practice, 2024(208).
. (2021). Survivor-faculty and the lived experience of disclosure. Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education.
. (2021). Survivor-Faculty: Making Meaning of Identity and Putting Identity into Action. Journal of the Professoriate.
Presentations
. (2022). Research Dangerously: A Scholarship of Consequence and Pushing Barriers in Educational Research and Praxis. AERA. San Diego, CA.
. (2025). Studying and Advocating for Justice-Oriented Policies. ASHE Graduate Student Policy Symposium. Virtual: ASHE.
. (2024). Creating and Implementing a Data Ecosystem for Assessing Sexual Violence Campus Climate. Assessment Institute. Indianapolis, IN.
Awards
- Diversity Scholars Network Member, University of Michigan
