Sara is a PhD candidate in the Department of International Relations at LSE who researches at the intersection of international politics and aesthetics. Her doctoral research explores the relationship between visual culture, creative practice and transnational resistance, with a focus on Myanmar’s diaspora. Sara utilises a practice-led research methodology, which leverages (auto)ethnography and curation as method. As part of this, she curated 'Not another protest exhibition' at the LSE's Atrium Gallery in February 2024. Theoretically, her work critically engages with the aesthetic turn in IR through anticolonial surrealist thought.
Previously, Sara worked on a variety of international research projects, utilising arts-based methods to explore experiences of conflict, humanitarian crisis, migration and displacement. Sara holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Minnesota and an MSc in Development Studies (with Distinction) from SOAS, University of London.
Sara’s teaching related to qualitative field methods was awarded an LSE Summer School Class Teacher Award. Her paper “Towards an anticolonial aesthetic politics: surrealist praxis & epistemic refusal” was awarded BISA’s Colonial, Postcolonial and Decolonial (CPD) ECR Runner Up Prize.
Sara is a co-organiser for the Doing International Political Sociology (IPS) London PhD Seminar Series from 2023-2024. She also served as Deputy Editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol 52. Her doctoral research is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s LAHP Doctoral Training Partnership.
Research topic
Aesthetic resistance and surrealist praxis beyond the nation-state
Teaching experience
- POL113: Politics in Action (QMUL)
- IR200: International Political Theory (LSE)
- ME305: Qualitative Field Methods (LSE Summer School)
Academic supervisor
Professor William A Callahan
Dr Holly Eva Ryan (QMUL)
Research Cluster affiliation
Theory/Area/History Research Cluster