Hello! Welcome to Sabbatical Studio.
My name is Liz Delia. I’m an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and I’ve spent over a decade researching identity and meaning. Outside academia, I’m drawn to movement – travel, adventure, and the kind of experiences that challenge how I think about work and life. Sabbatical Studio sits at the intersection of these worlds.
The Story of Sabbatical Studio
In a relatively short span of time, several things converged for me. I turned 40, lost both of my parents, and went through a major career milestone all in one year.
Individually, each of those things can prompt reflection, but together, they forced it. I started to question not just what I was working on, but how work fit into my life more broadly. What I needed wasn’t more productivity, but more space. I needed space to think, to step back, and to reconsider what I actually wanted my work (and life) to look like.
That period made me see time away differently – not something separate from work, but as an essential part of how we think, reset, and move forward.
Sabbatical Studio began with a simple realization: time away from work is rare and deeply valuable, and yet it’s often treated as an isolated (or even risky) pause rather than a meaningful part of lives and careers.
My first sabbatical was full of both discovery and curveballs. I’d imagined uninterrupted time for research and creative work, but life had other plans. During that period, I navigated everyday family responsibilities alongside unexpected caregiving for my parents during serious health challenges.
Over the past decade, I’ve experienced multiple forms of stepping away – including formal university sabbatical, a research-intensive semester, and unexpected leave following serious family caregiving and loss. Each reshaped how I think about time, purpose, and what it really means to pause intentionally.
Through these experiences, I came to see both the potential and the gaps around time away. While many professional paths offer guidance for growth and productivity, there’s often little structured support for stepping back – for planning time away well, navigating it with clarity, and returning with intention.
Sabbatical Studio grew out of that realization. It offers practical tools, reflective space, and thoughtful support to help people make the most of both formal and self-designed time away, and to carry its impact forward into whatever comes next.
Sabbatical Studio is a resource and creative space for anyone looking to approach time away – and their work or life – with greater intention. It’s a place for reflection, creativity, and purposeful planning, grounded in the belief that time off isn’t just time away, but time toward something meaningful.
Here, you’ll find ideas, tools, and frameworks for planning, navigating, and returning from a sabbatical or extended break, as well as strategies for bringing the clarity and energy of time away into everyday life. I also share insights, personal reflections, and creative practices for cultivating renewal and purpose at any stage of your career or personal journey.
Sabbatical Studio exists to help people reimagine their relationship with time, creativity, and purpose, so that renewal and exploration aren’t limited to rare formal sabbaticals but can become an ongoing part of how we live and work – whether you’re on a traditional leave, designing your own mini-sabbatical, or taking a career pause.
At Sabbatical Studio, I offer a mix of resources, including blog posts, guides, and reflections, as well as targeted support and planning services. Some resources are practical, providing frameworks for planning, navigating, and returning from a sabbatical or extended break, while others invite deeper reflection on identity, purpose, and renewal.
My approach blends research, lived experience, and conversations with people navigating different forms of leave and transition, from formal sabbaticals to self-designed pauses or career breaks.