Sarah Clancy completed her PhD in Sociology at McMaster University, studying the impact of pop culture and dress styles on the development of children’s identity. Her interests in children are reflected in a course she has developed, titled Small Worlds: Children and Childhood. Sarah also currently teaches Introduction to Social Psychology, instructs and supervises the original research projects that Social Psychology students complete in their final year in the program (SOC PSY 4ZZ6), teaches courses in the Department of Health, Aging and Society on health & society (HLTH AGE 1AA3), developed and teaches a course on health and incarceration (HLTH AGE 3T03), as well as supervises fourth year Health, Aging and Society and PNB students completing their independent thesis in their final year of study.  Sarah is also the Faculty advisor for the McMaster Undergraduate Journal of Social Psychology.

Sarah has a keen interest in teaching and learning pedagogies, as well as fostering opportunities for student research, engagement, and skill building.   Sarah recently received a MacPherson Institute Teaching & Learning PALAT (Priority Areas for Teaching and Learning) Research Grant (2021-2022) to support a student-run Social Psychology conference, a pre-conference workshop, as well as support research via an exit feedback survey to evaluate the conference for future growth and priority setting.  This project facilitates student partnerships and provides an outlet for our students to have a safe and inclusive place to share their research and engage in knowledge translation, offering students hands-on research experience and inquiry at the undergraduate level.  Sarah is very excited to work with former social psychology graduate, Shaina McDonald (M.A.Ed. at the University of Ottawa), co-investigator/RA, on this MacPherson PALAT funded project, as well as with the undergraduate students attending the conference and those working as RAs for the project.

Additionally, Sarah has developed a new initiative launching during the 2021-2022 academic year, a core skill-building non-credit certificate of completion workshop series, called the ‘ABC’s Skills Workshop and Certificate of Completion’.  The ‘ABC’s’ refer to the following: A - Academic writing and article reading; B - Building communication and collaboration skills in groups; and, C – Critical thinking skills.  Sarah is excited to work collaboratively with student facilitators/moderators on this initiative, as well as engaging with the students taking the workshop. 

Sarah's other research and teaching interests include: health and health care; social deviance, social problems and criminology; social psychology of crime; health, aging and well-being; health inequalities; health and incarceration; and, historical conceptions of aging. Sarah has taught numerous courses over the years in these subject areas. Additionally, Sarah is a trained qualitative and quantitative researcher.