Dr Sara de Jong

Professional biography

She currently conducts research on the claims for protection, rights and settlement by Afghans and Iraqis who have worked for Western military forces and development organisations, as well as on the activities and strategies of their supporters. Listen to a podcast in which I am interviewed alongside an Afghan interpreter or read about it in The Conversation and openDemocracy.

Her broader research interests include the role of brokers in colonial and contemporary unequal encounters, and the politics of NGOs in relation to migration, gender and development.

Her PhD research was published as a monograph with Oxford University Press in the Gender and IR book series under the title Complicit Sisters: Gender and Women's Issues across North-South Divides.

Selected recent publications include (extended list can be found under the publications tab:

• de Jong, S. (2018) 'Brokerage and Transnationalism: Present and Past Intermediaries, Social Mobility, and Mixed Loyalties', Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 25(5): 610-628.
• Severs, E. and S. de Jong (2018) 'Preferable minority representatives: brokerage and betrayal', PS: Political Science and Politics, doi:10.1017/S1049096517002499.
• de Jong, S. and I. Ataç (2017) 'Demand and Deliver: Refugee Support Organisations in Austria' (Open Access), Social Inclusion, 5(3): 28-37.
• de Jong, S. and P. Dannecker (2017) 'Managing Migration with Stories? The IOM 'i am a migrant‘ Campaign', Journal für Entwicklungspolitik, XXXIII(1), 75-101.
• de Jong, S. and S. Kimm (2017) 'The Co-optation of Feminisms: A Research Agenda', International Feminist Journal of Politics, 19(2).
• de Jong, S. (2016) ‘Converging Logics? Managing Diversity and Managing Migration’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(3): 341-358.
• de Jong, S. (2016) “Cultural Brokers in Post-colonial Migration Regimes.” In: Negotiating Normativity: Postcolonial Appropriations, Contestations, and Transformations (eds. N. Dhawan, E. Fink, J. Leinius, and R. Mageza-Barthel). Berlin: Springer, 45–59.

Sara de Jong has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in international development, conflict and IR; migration; political theory: (post-)colonialism, and gender at different HE institutions in the UK, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.

She currently co-supervises three PhD students at The Open University in the fields of international development, migration and gender.

She is interested in critical pedagogy and innovation in learning and recently co-edited the (open access) special issue 'Decolonising the University' with R. Icaza, R. Vázquez, and S. Withaeckx  (2017), Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, 20(3). Together with Sanne Koevoets, she edited the book Teaching Gender with Libraries and Archives: The Power of Information  (CEU Press). Free download available

In November 2017, she was invited to give oral evidence to the  Defence Select Committee on Afghan locally employed civilians. Watch the session here. The Defence Select Committee's report was published in May 2018. Read also my response in The Conversation.

She contributed to the 2017 'Who are We' Tate Exchange, a week-long event on identity, belonging, migration and citizenship through arts and audience participation at the Tate Modern museum, as part of The Open University Tate Exchange Associates' Consortium.

The findings of her FP7 research project BrokerInG about refugee, migrant and ethnic minority staff of social sector organisations in the field of migration have been disseminated in blogs, workshops, and public lectures, for instance at the Migration Museum Project in London. Third Sector Dissemination Brochure Research Results  Employing the Cultural Broker in the Governance of Migration and Integration, 2016

Sara de Jong is on the international advisory board of the Rowman & Littlefield International book series 'Studies in Social and Global Justice', and associate editorial board member of Sociological Research Online.

She is co-chair of Atgender: the European Association for Gender Research, Education, and Documentation. 

I am affiliated researcher at the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality (ARC-GS), University of Amsterdam and at Atria, Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History, Amsterdam.