Sarah Vandegrift Eldridge † *12

Sarah Vandegrift Eldridge, associate professor and chair of German in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, died on January 2, 2026. She was 41. The cause was triple-negative breast cancer, with which she lived for two-and-a-half years. 

We mourn the loss of a distinguished scholar of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German literature and a beloved and admired alumna of our department. Sarah came to Princeton in 2006 after completing a BA in German at the University of Chicago. She earned her PhD in 2012 and joined the faculty at UTK that same year. Sarah was a prominent member of the field and a cherished colleague and teacher at UTK. Her first book, Novel Affinities: Composing the Family in the German Novel, 1795-1830, was published in 2016. She co-edited Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Philosophy (2020) and served as co-editor of the Goethe Yearbook. Her second book, Composite Selves: Subjecthood in the German Novel, 1700–1795, was published on January 2, 2026. She will be considered for posthumous promotion to full professor at UTK. Sarah was a dedicated leader of the United Campus Workers of Tennessee, a wall-to-wall union in which she was active throughout her time at UTK. Her 2024 article, “Mothers’ Labor: Organizing and Parenting in Neoliberal Academia,” includes critical reflections on her graduate studies that exemplify the intellectual poise, consideration, and incisiveness that defined Sarah’s scholarship and her vital moral presence as a member of our community. 

Sarah is survived by her husband Steven Johnston, daughters Elena and Isabelle, parents Joan Vandegrift and Richard Eldridge, sister Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge (Marina Nasrin Sharifi), and brother Jonathan Vandegrift Eldridge.