Sara Jones

Sara Jones is a Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham, with a cross-College affiliation to the Institute for German Studies (POLSIS) and the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action. Her work bridges academia, public engagement, and policy, focusing on memory as a cultural, social, and political process.

• Education: BA (Bristol, 2003), MA & PhD (Nottingham, 2005 & 2009), PCAP (Birmingham, 2013)

Research Interests center on the social and cultural history of state socialism, post-socialist memory practices, and interdisciplinary approaches to testimony. Key areas include transnational memory, decoloniality, and the intersection of memory with migration and political identity.

• Projects: Post-Socialist Britain (AHRC, 2021-2024), Knowing the Stasi (AHRC, 2018-2022), Testimony in Practice (AHRC, 2019-2020)
• Collaborations: Work with artists, NGOs, and educators including Centrala, La Conquesta del Pol Sud, and Holocaust Educational Trust

Scientific Awards include AHRC grants, Leverhulme Fellowship, and DAAD funding. Her monograph Towards a Collaborative Memory (2022) redefines transnational memory ethics.

Advising spans 9 current and 8 completed PhD projects on topics like Lithuanian nationalism, Holocaust education, and GDR opposition. She also co-supervises Support for Displaced Ukrainians (2024) with Birmingham City Council.