Sarah L. Orsak is a feminist scholar of disability with a research focus on the relationships between Blackness and disability. Her work asks how disability operates as a racialized category and how this operation impacts scholarly field formation. A recent research focus includes the racial and disability politics of intersex athletic regulations. Dr. Orsak’s work has received funding from the Mellon Foundation and the Rutgers Center for Research on Women. This research has been published in Disability Studies Quarterly and Feminist Formations.

Dr. Orsak is trained as an interdisciplinary scholar and holds a Ph.D. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Rutgers University—New Brunswick. Before joining the Department of Women, Gender & Sexuality at UVa as an Assistant Professor, she was a Rising Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow in the department. Dr. Orsak is a member of UVa’s Disability Studies Initiative and is incoming co-chair of the Critical Disability Studies Caucus of the American Studies Association.