Sara F. Hall

Sara F. Hall is an Associate Professor of Germanic Studies and Chair of the Minor in Moving Image Arts at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She serves as Director of Graduate Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Secretary, and Immediate Past President of the German Studies Association. Her research focuses on international silent film, contemporary German cinema, transnational film markets, and women film pioneers. She has held leadership roles including Acting Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs and Interim Director of the School of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics (LCSL).

Dr. Hall holds a Ph.D. in German Literature and Culture from UC Berkeley (2000), with additional training at institutions including Freie Universität Berlin and Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. She has received grants from the DAAD, Berlin Program, and UIC Institute for the Humanities. Her work explores intersections of cinema with law enforcement history, cultural memory, and transnational media practices.

Her notable awards include the 2019 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Essay Prize for Babylon Berlin: Pastiching Weimar Cinema, the 2018 UIC Excellence in Teaching Award, and multiple teaching recognition honors. Current research projects include The Investigating Camera: Cinema and the Production of Law and Order in Weimar Germany and Moving Images: Hollywood Remakes and the Revision of German History.

Hall has presented globally on topics like Weimar cinema's legacy, transnational film markets, and public memory projects. She co-edits Screen Bodies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Experience, Perception, and Display and has led initiatives promoting diversity in honors curricula. Her interdisciplinary work bridges film studies, history, and cultural studies through over two decades of academic leadership and scholarship.