Sara Polak
University Lecturer
- Name
- Dr. S.A. Polak
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2142
- s.a.polak@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-5003-5031
Sara Polak is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.
More information about Sara Polak
News
-
Sara Polak: 'I want to know if what social media is doing to the political game in the US is unique' -
Ten Leiden researchers awarded ERC Starting Grants -
Call for Papers 'Playing Politics: Media Platforms Making Worlds' -
Americans go to the polls: 'The midterms are more than a popularity poll' -
Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference - Call for Papers -
Hour of Remembrance on 4 May: ‘We commemorate war victims and draw links to the present’ -
Humanities researchers publish a new journal issue inspired by times of crisis -
DEADLINE EXTENDED Call for Papers JLGC 09: Reinventing Boundaries in Times of Crisis -
Black lives matter: ‘Racism takes different forms but it’s a world issue’ -
Sara Polak: ‘Corona unveils great social inequality in the US’ -
‘Fantasies about coronavirus are more contagious than the disease itself’ -
Midterm elections: surprising results, or not so much? -
Sixth issue Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference published -
NWO KIEM Grant for LUCAS researchers -
No moderation in tone at Trump's inauguration -
Rubicon grant for Sara Polak -
Four Rubicon grants for Leiden researchers -
Fulbright scholarship takes Sara Polak to Yale
Links
Fields of interest
- American studies
- Presidential image-making
- Play and politics
- Digital media studies
- Comics and political cartooning
- Disability studies
- Memory studies
- Modern English Literature
- 19th- to 21st-century American literature
Research
My long-term research focus is on the cultural and media politics of image-making of US presidents, and on presidents and their use of media in a broad sense. I am currently working on a book about playful politics and Donald Trump’s use of Twitter, as part of the NWO project Playing Politics: Media Platforms Making Worlds.
My doctoral dissertation (with Peter Liebregts and Frans Willem Korsten) was on Franklin D. Roosevelt as a cultural icon in American memory. It included a Fulbright visiting fellowship at Yale University, with Jay Winter. My book, FDR in American Memory – Roosevelt and the Making of an Icon, appeared with Johns Hopkins University Press in 2021.
In 2016-2017, I did a one-year NWO Rubicon postdoc at the Justus-Liebig Universität in Giessen, Germany, with Greta Olson, focused on the Ebola epidemic in US cultural memory on Twitter. This is both how I moved into social media research, and into studying Donald Trump, who was an avid Ebola tweeter, and during that year, became US president. This project led to two edited volumes, both to appear in Open Access in 2020/2021: Embodying Contagion: The Viropolitics of Horror and Desire in Contemporary Discourse (with Megen de Bruin-Molé and Sandra Becker, University of Wales Press), and Violence and Trolling on Social Media: History, Affect and Effects of Online Vitriol (with Daniel Trottier, Amsterdam University Press).
Curriculum vitae
2021-present Research Fellow “Playing Politics: Media Platforms Making Worlds”
2020-present Program chair of the MA North American Studies; coordinator of the minor American Studies
2015-present University Lecturer in American Studies at Leiden University
2010-2015 Lecturer in modern English Literature and PhD Researcher at Leiden University
2014-2015 Six-month Fulbright Scholarship at Yale University
2008-2010 Lecturer in American History at the University of Amsterdam
2005-2007 Research Master in Literary Studies (cum laude) at the University of Amsterdam
2005-2007 B.Sc. Psychology at the University of Amsterdam
2000-2003 BA Hons. English Literature at Cambridge University (UK)
Key publications
- FDR in American Memory: Roosevelt and the Making of an Icon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021.
- Embodying Contagion: The Viropolitics of Horror and Desire in Contemporary Discourse. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2021. Open Access. [https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47586]. Co-editors: Megen de Bruin-Molé and Sandra Becker.
- Violence and Trolling on Social Media: History, Affect and Effects of Online Vitriol. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. Open Access. [https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/42883]. Co-editor: Daniel Trottier.
- “Posting the Presidency: Trump’s Cartoon Politics in a Social Media Landscape” Media, Arts, and Law Review 22:4, 403-419, 2019.
Teaching activities
- Words as Weapons in the USA
- Migration Matters: (Im)migration, Memory, and Identity in American Literature and Film
- Slavery and Memory in the Black Atlantic
- American Comics Against the Code: Autobiography and Journalism in Graphic Novels
- Literature 5A: American Literature 1917-present
- Thesis supervision in North American Studies, Literary Studies, English and International Studies
Grants and honors
- NWO Open Science, Open Access Book Grant for Embodying Contagion. (2020)
- NWO-KIEM “Voices of Cultural Memory: Oral/Aural Storytelling in the Museum” – research project with the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, with Laura Bertens, Yra van Dijk, Anthonya Visser. (2017)
- NWO Rubicon Scholarship for research at Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen, with Greta Olson. (2016)
- Fulbright Scholarship for 6-month research fellowship at Yale University, with Jay Winter. (2014)
- NWO Promoties in de Geesteswetenschappen, PhD Grant. (2010)
University Lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Moderne Engelstalige letterkunde
- Polak S.A. (2 July 2023), “De invloed van het Murdoch-media-imperium”. for OVT, Radio 1 (VPRO). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (5 July 2022), Abortus is geen heet hangijzer, dat heeft de politiek ervan gemaakt. Interviewed by Valentijn De Hingh for De Correspondent. [interview].
- Polak S.A. (8 May 2022), Keert Amerika terug naar het tijdperk van vóór Roe v. Wade?. Interviewed by Julie Blussé for OVT (Radio 1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (1 May 2022), Martha Mitchell, de Cassandra van Watergate. Interviewed by Julie Blussé Jos Palm for OVT (Radio 1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (1 February 2022), US National Archives Talk “FDR in American Memory”: Online lecture about FDR in American Memory for the US National Archives. [lecture].
- Polak S.A. (2 June 2020), Waarom het protest in de VS deze keer anders is: "Het verschil zijn de gevolgen van corona én Trump". for De wereld vandaag (VRT 1, Belgie). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (5 July 2020), OVT radio 1: Pestkop, lafaard en slachtoffer: Roy Cohn . for OVT Radioprogramma VPRO (NPO, Radio 1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (10 October 2020), Onderzoeker: Trump gedraagt zich als een stripfiguur, juist daarom komt hij met zoveel weg . Interviewed by Hermen Visser for Trouw, Wetenschap. [interview].
- Polak S.A. & De Vroey B. (3 November 2020), Terzake: Presidentsverkiezingen in de Verenigde Staten. Interviewed by Annelies Beck for Terzake (VRT1/CANVAS). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (11 October 2020), Sara Polak over kwakkelende presidenten . Interviewed by Julie Blusée Jos Palm for OVT (VPRO - Radio 1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (15 November 2020), OVT: Verdient Trump een presidentieel pardon?. Interviewed by Julie Blusée Jos Palm for OVT (VPRO - Radio 1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (1 April 2019), Universiteit van Nederland: "Waarom kun je Trump geen protestpresident noemen?". Universiteit van Nederland. [lecture].
- Polak S.A. (11 July 2019), VPRO Bureau Buitenland: Volkstelling VS: wie telt wel mee en wie niet? . Interviewed by Kijne Chris for Bureau Buitenland (Radio 1, VPRO). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (9 December 2019), Help, de jaren twintig komen eraan: de Verenigde Staten . Interviewed by Kijne Chris for Bureau Buitenland (Radio 1, VPRO). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (2 October 2019), Met het oog op morgen: Ophef over de film Joker. Interviewed by Zandt Herman van der for Met het oog op morgen (NPO, Radio 1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (4 November 2018), De Midterm Elections US. Interviewed by Matroos Diana for Buitenhof (VPRO). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (7 November 2018), De midterms en de grassroots-bewegingen. Interviewed by Kijne Chris for Bureau Buitenland (VPRO, NPO1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (31 October 2018), Bureau Buitenland, Carol Rock, Sara Polak, Maartje Somers. Interviewed by Kijne Chris for Bureau Buitenland (VPRO, NPO1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (3 November 2018), Dinsdag zijn de midterms verkiezingen in de VS. Moet Trump vrezen voor flinke verliezen?. Interviewed by Jansen Dolf for Spijker met koppen (BNNVARA, NPO2). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (3 May 2018), Ruth Bader Ginsburg: een iconische Amerikaanse rechter. Interviewed by Veenhoven Willemijn for De Nieuws BV (BNNVARA, NPO1). [interview].
- Polak S.A. (12 April 2017), Bureau Buitenland, radio 1. . [interview].
- Polak S.A. (9 March 2017), De Dagwacht, radio 1. . [interview].
- Polak S.A. (2016), Tineke de Nooij, radio 5, 12 september 2016. . [interview].
- Polak S.A. (2016), Nieuws en Co, radio 1, 8 november 2016. . [interview].
- Polak S.A. (2013), De Wereld Leert Door (televisie) 22 maart 2013. . [interview].