Sarah Frank

Dr Sarah Frank is a Lecturer in the History of the Francophone World at the University of Sheffield's School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities. Her work focuses on resistance, collaboration, and anticolonialism during 1940–1965, with a particular emphasis on French colonial rule's impact on African, Asian, and Caribbean populations. She holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and has held academic positions at the University of the Free State (South Africa) and the University of St. Andrews (Scotland).

• Education:
  • M.Phil in Modern Irish History (Trinity College Dublin)
  • PhD in Modern European History (Trinity College Dublin, funded by the Irish Research Council)

Her research explores post-war trauma, everyday life under colonial rule, and political mobilization. Her award-winning monograph Hostages of Empire (2022) analyzes colonial prisoners of war in Vichy France, reshaping understandings of race and empire in Vichy policies.

Research Projects:

• 'Rebuilding Lives, Decolonising Nations': A transnational oral history project examining post-WWII repatriation in former French and British colonies, advised by Mr. Clément Gnimagnon.

Awards:

• 2022 Alf Andrew Heggoy Prize
• Shortlisted for Gladstone Prize
• Coups de Coeur (American Library in Paris)

Advising & Grants:

• Supervised Rory Hanna’s PhD on student activism in West Germany (second supervisor)
• Recipient of Irish Research Council PhD funding