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. (2025), Donald Trump’s viral narratives and shifting pandemic communication: a search for playful affordances (2014–2021). In: Butler M., Farzin S., Fuchs M. & Hempel F. (Eds.), Coming to terms with a crisis: cultural engagements with COVID-19. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. 221-235.
- Polak S.A. (2024), Donald Trump and truth social: media platforms making exclusionary worlds. In: Olson G. & Kreitler M (Eds.), Diversity issues in the USA: transnational perspectives on the 2024 presidential elections. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. 137-147.
- Polak S.A. & Stroband S. (2023), The notorious RBG: The discursive power of celebrity in defense of the supreme court: an analysis of On the Basis of Sex, RBG, and My Own Words, Journal of Popular Culture 56(3-4): 635-647.
- Van den Heede P.J.B.J. & Polak S.A. (2023), Historical events as ‘Magic Yarn Balls’: towards productive engagements with historical analogies, Journal of Applied History 5(1): 47-74.
- Polak S.A. (18 April 2023), Opinie: ‘Fetanylgebruik moet aangepakt, maar het frame is racistisch’. Het Parool.
- Polak S.A. & Zwetsloot A.J.A. (2022), “And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute”: Donald Trump as patient zero and superspreader of Covid-19 cartoon logic, European Journal of English Studies 26(3): 377-398.
- Polak S.A. (10 November 2022), Witte angst voedt spookverhalen over verkiezingsfraude. Het Financieele Dagblad.
- Polak S.A. (2022), Review of: Baumgartner J.C. & Becker A.B. (2018), Political humor in a changing media landscape: a new generation of research. Lanham/Boulder/New York/London: Lexington Books. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research 35(4): 707-710.
- Hiltrop M. & Polak S.A. (2022), George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo: semiotic explorations of Abraham Lincoln in American cultural memory, Rethinking History 26(4): 551-568.
- Polak S.A. (2022), Het complot als spel dat de speler bespeelt, Leidschrift 37(juni): 49-63.
- Polak S.A. (3 January 2022), “My button is bigger & more powerful than his”: Prosumer culture in social media humour. Humour in the European Public Sphere. Krakow: UNA Europa. [blog entry].
- Becker S., Bruin-Molé M. de & Polak S.A. (Eds.) (2021), Embodying Contagion : The Viropolitics of Horror and Desire in Contemporary Discourse. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
- Polak S.A. (2021), Nostalgie naar de New Deal: Terug naar Franklin D. Roosevelt, De Groene Amsterdammer 145(17): 30-33.
- Dam H.D.J. van & Polak S.A. (2021), Owning Gilead: franchising feminism through Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, European Journal of English Studies 25(2): 172-189.
- Ieven B.K., Polak S.A. & Buelens G. 6 November 2021, Over politiek spelen. Leest Spreekt. Platform Leest [podcast].
- Polak S.A. (2021), FDR in American Memory: Roosevelt and the Making of an Icon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Polak S.A. (2021) De geboorte van Big Data: een ‘macroscoop’ voor de VS in de jaren zestig. Review of: Lepore J. (2020), If Then - How One Data Company Invented the Future: WW Norton & co.. De Nederlandse Boekengids .
- Polak S.A. (2021), Voor je het weet doe je eraan mee, TH en MA 28(3): 42.
- Polak S.A. (27 August 2021), Voor Amerika doet Afghanistan er niet meer toe. Het Financieele Dagblad, Opinie: 25.
- Polak S.A. (2021), Franklin D. Roosevelt as an Architect of Public History. In: Zwiers M. & Olthof J. (Eds.), Profiles in Power: Personality, Persona, and the U.S. President. Leiden, Boston: Brill Publishing. 81-95.
- Anli Z., Volkmar A., Cardozo de Souza A.P., Feuth A.G.B.M., Hui T., Majid B., Seale L.R., Shobeiri S.A., Vergeer T. & Polak S.A. (Eds.) (2020), Landscape in Perspective: Projections and Transformations. Journal LUCAS Graduate Conference. Leiden: Leiden University Library.
- Polak S.A. (2020), Eleanor Roosevelt’s autofabrication as gendered premediation of a female presidency. In: Fazzi D. & Luscombe A. (Eds.), Eleanor Roosevelt's views on diplomacy and democracy: the global citizen. The World of the Roosevelts. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 171-192.
- Polak S.A. & Trottier D. (Eds.) (2020), Violence and Trolling on Social Media : History, Affect, and Effects of Online Vitriol. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
- Polak S.A. & De Vroey B. (4 November 2020), Terzake: Presidentsverkiezingen in de Verenigde Staten. Interviewed by Kathleen Cools for Terzake(VRT1/CANVAS) [interview].
- Kleiter C., Riedinger M., Mosseri E., Fischer D., Vergeer T., Hendrikx S.M., Oudshoorn M.A., Guan Z., Hiskes A.R., Jansen L.M., Muitjens G., Nakamura J.P., Tissen L.N.M. & Polak S.A. (Eds.) (2020), Animals (Un)tamed: Human-Animal Encounters in Science, Art, and Literature. Journal LUCAS Graduate Conference. Leiden.
- Bertens L.M.F. & Polak S.A. (2019), Using museum audio guides in the construction of prosthetic memory, Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies 17(1): 1-12.
- Polak S.A. (2018), Posting the Presidency: Cartoon Politics in a Social Media Landscape, Media and Arts Law Review 22(4): 403-419.
- Polak S.A. (2017), “And with all she lived with casual unawareness of her value to civilization” : Close-reading Eleanor Roosevelt's Autofabrication, European Journal of American Studies 12(1): .
- Polak S.A., overdemuur.org, platform voor historische vernieuwing. [web article].
- Polak S.A. (10 November 2017), Gewalt im Netz: Frauen sind Zielscheibe von Hass.
- Polak S.A. (2017), Ebola in the American Imagination: Contagious Metaphors and Narratives on Twitter, : 22-25.
- Polak S.A., Blog posts (7 to date) for Over de Muur (overdemuur.org) platform voor historische vernieuwing. [blog entry].
- Polak S.A. (2017), Since 2016: 35 newspaper analyses of American politics, history, culture (600-1200 words each) in Leidsch Dagblad, Noord-Hollands Dagblad, Gooi- en Eemlander and other regional papers.
- Polak S.A. (12 November 2016), 18 columns and 2 longer analytical articles in Leidsch Dagblad (Noord-Hollands Dagblad, Gooi- en Eemlander et al.) about the US elections 2016 (30/7/2016-12/11/2016). Leidsch Dagblad.
- Bleijenberg L., Bodde O.C., Janzen J.P.C., Glickman S., Knegtel F., Korte H., Louwrier D. & Polak S.A. (Eds.) (2015), Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference. Journal LUCAS Graduate Conference.
- Polak S.A. (2015), President in een rolstoel, Geschiedenis Magazine (1): 52-55.
- Polak S.A. (2015), President in een rolstoel, Geschiedenis Magazine 2015(January): 52-55.
- Polak S.A. (10 April 2015), The Presidential Juggler: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rhetorical Flexibility, and Autofabrication. U.S. Studies Online: British Association for American Studies. [blog entry].
- Polak S.A. (8 December 2015), "This is Roosevelt's World" - FDR as a Cultural Icon in American Memory (Dissertatie. Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Humanities, Leiden University). Supervisor(s): Liegbregts P.T.M.G. & Korsten F.W.A.
- Polak S.A. (2015) Review of The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity & Enshrine Their Legacies by Anthony Clark. Review of: Clark A., The Last Campaign: How Presidents Rewrite History, Run for Posterity & Enshrine Their Legacies. Public Historian 37(3): 142-144.
- Polak S.A. (2014), Prosthetic Memories of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Infantile Paralysis as Narrative Embodiments for Traumatic American War Memory. In: Mihaelescu D., Oltean R. & Precup M. (Eds.), Mapping Generations of Traumatic Memory in American Narratives. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar Publishing. 265-284.
- Polak S.A. (2014), "Does My Cock Still Work?" Franklin D. Roosevelt's Prosthetic Masculinity in FDR American Badass!, The Mid-Atlantic Almanack 23(2014): 59-74.
- Knevel P., Polak S.A. & Tilstra S. (2011), Meerstemmig verleden, Persoonlijke verhalen over het Nederlandse slavernijverleden. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers.
- Janssens R.V.A. & Polak S.A. (2010), Tussen High Noon en Black Hawk Down: Amerikaanse cultuur en de rol van de krijgsmacht. In: , De Verenigde Staten in 2020: toekomstplanning van een hegemon. Den Haag: Ministerie van Defensie. 52-86.
- Polak S.A. (2010), Roosevelt in zijn eigen museum: waarom Franklin D. Roosevelt als authentiek ervaren wordt. In: , Tweede Levens, Over personen en personages in de geschiedschrijving en de literatuur. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 124-135.
- Polak S.A. & Akkermans A. (2009), Onverwachte ontmoetingen in de Pijp. Amsterdam: Stichting KleurRijk Verleden.
- Polak S.A. & Knevel P. (2009), Lang leve het herinneren, het belang van levensverhalen, Biografie Bulletin najaar: .
- Polak S.A. (2006), Emily Dickinson's Epistolary Immortality, Emily Dickinson International Society Bulletin 18(2): 4-7.