Sarah Nimführ

Sarah Nimführ is a cultural anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arts Linz's Department of Cultural Studies since 2021. She holds a Hertha Firnberg Fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for her project on transgenerational Jewish diaspora memory in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Her research spans collaborative knowledge production, decolonial theories, migration studies, and island-focused cultural analysis.

Education:

• PhD in European Ethnology (2020), University of Vienna (with distinction)
• MA in Empirical Cultural Studies and Educational Sciences (University of Tübingen)

Research Focus:
Dr. Nimführ examines how islands become sites of contested identity, migration, and memory. Her work on Jewish cemetery heritage in the Caribbean and the musicolonial legacy of Cuban music reveals entanglements of colonial history, cultural preservation, and contemporary decolonial practices. She interrogates spatial theories through Mediterranean and Caribbean case studies, emphasizing liminality, non-deportability, and archipelagic memoryscapes.

Scientific Contributions:

• Principal investigator on Jewish diaspora memory work in Sosúa
• Co-editor of Writing Together: Collaborative Writing with People from the Field (2023)
• Editor of Space – Theory – Empiricism: A Workbook (2025)
• Developing digital preservation tools for Caribbean Jewish cemeteries

Awards & Recognition:

• Theodor Körner Prize for Humanities (2019)
• Rinus Penninx Best Paper Award (2018)
• ÖAW DOC Fellowship recipient (2016)

Academic Leadership:
Since 2022, she serves as Vice President of the International Small Island Studies Association and Associated Editor of the Island Studies Journal. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on forced migration, engaged anthropology, and spatial theory at universities across Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.