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Sara R Farris

Staff details

Position Senior Lecturer
Department Sociology
Email s.farris (@gold.ac.uk)
Phone +44 (0)20 7717 3108
Sara R Farris

Sara Farris worked at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, University of Amsterdam and King’s College, and held Fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2012-13), Institute for Advanced Studies in Konstanz (2011) and Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (2009-2010) before joining Goldsmiths in 2013.

Sara's work to date has focused on the orientalist underpinnings of sociological theory, which  Sara explored in my first monograph on Max Weber’s sociology of religion, and on theories of gender, race and social reproduction, particularly as they apply to the analysis of migrant women in Western Europe. Through these theoretical lenses and interests, Sara has examined theories of racism and nationalism; the specific gendered forms of Orientalist/Westocentric representations of women in the Western public discourse; the mobilization of women’s rights by right-wing nationalist parties within xenophobic campaigns (which Sara calls ‘Femonationalism’); the multiple forms of exploitation and domination that characterize female migrant labor in the care and domestic sector in particular; the commodification of care and social reproduction and its links to processes of racialization; the dialogue between intersectionality theory and Marxist feminisms.

Sara is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Historical Materialism and international book review editor for Critical Sociology.

Teaching

Sara is the co-convenor of the BA joint degree in Sociology and Politics. Sara currently convenes the BA core modules Central Issues in Sociological Analysis and Social Change and Political Action for second year students and the BA option module Migration, Gender and Social Reproduction for third year students. Sara is also a regular contributor to MA modules on gender and “race”.

Areas of supervision

Sara Farris is interested in supervising projects that fall within my research interests.

Currently supervising

  • Pablo Castano Tierno ‘Populism and feminism in Bolivia. The relations between women's movements and MAS governments' (with Kate Nash) (funded by La Caixa Bank Foundation, Spain).
  • Svenja Bromberg ‘Thinking ‘emancipation’ after Marx. A conceptual analysis of emancipation between citizenship and revolution’ (with Alberto Toscano) (funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Germany).

Research Interests

  • sociological and political theory
  • gender and transnational migrations
  • “race” and racism
  • theories of nationalism and orientalism
  • social reproduction feminism
  • feminist theory
  • Marxism

Publications

Book

Farris, Sara R.. 2017. In the Name of Women's Rights. The Rise of Femonationalism. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822369608

Farris, Sara R.. 2016. Returns of Marxism. Marxist Theory in a Time of Crisis (edited by Sara R. Farris). Chicago: Haymarket Books. ISBN 9781608465743

Farris, Sara R.. 2013. Max Weber’s Theory of Personality: Individuation, Politics and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004254084

Edited Book

Diefenbach, Katja; Farris, Sara R.; Kirn, Gal and Thomas, Peter D., eds. 2013. Encountering Althusser. Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781441152138

Book Section

Farris, Sara R.. 2019. Social reproduction and racialized surplus populations. In: Peter Osborne; Éric Alliez and Eric-John Russell, eds. Capitalism: Concept, Idea, Image – Aspects of Marx's Capital Today. Kingston upon Thames: CRMEP Books, pp. 121-134. ISBN 9781999333706

Farris, Sara R. and Scrinzi, Francesca. 2018. “'Subaltern Victims’ or ‘Useful Resources”? Migrant Women in the Lega Nord Ideology and Politics". In: Jon Mulholland; Nicola Montagna and Erin Sanders-McDonagh, eds. Gendering Nationalism: Intersections of Nation, Gender and Sexuality in the 21st Century. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 241-257. ISBN 9783319766997

Webber, Jeffery R.. 2016. ‘The Last Day of Oppression, and the First Day of the Same’: Popular Forces Regroup against Rafael Correa in Ecuador. In: Sara R. Farris, ed. Returns of Marxism: Marxist Theory in a Time of Crisis. Chicago: Haymarket Books. ISBN 9781608465743

Farris, Sara R.. 2015. Femonationalismus und Staatsfeminismus. In: , ed. Geschlecht in Gesellschaftlichen Transformationsprozessen. Berlin & Toronti: Barbara Budrich, pp. 75-89. ISBN 3847406191

Farris, Sara R.. 2013. Althusser and Tronti: the Primacy of Politics versus the Autonomy of the Political. In: Katja Diefenbach; Sara R. Farris; Gal Kirn and Peter Thomas, eds. Encountering Althusser. Politics and Materialism in Contemporary Radical Thought,. New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 185-203. ISBN 9781441152138

Article

Farris, Sara R.. 2020. The business of care: Private placement agencies and female migrant workers in London. Gender, Work and Organization, 27(6), pp. 1450-1467. ISSN 0968-6673

Farris, Sara R.. 2017. Introduction: Righting Feminism. New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory, Politics, 91(3), pp. 5-15. ISSN 0950-2378

Farris, Sara R. and Marchetti, Sabrina. 2017. From the commodification to the corporatization of care? European perspectives and debates. Social Politics. International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 24(2), pp. 109-131. ISSN 1072-4745

Farris, Sara R.. 2016. The Cold War of Women and Islam. Syndicate Theology,

Farris, Sara R.. 2016. Dispossessing the Private Sphere? Civic Integration Policies and Colonial Legacies. Darkmatter, 14(14), ISSN 2041-3254

Farris, Sara R.. 2016. Introduction to "Special Issue on Social Reproduction Feminism". Historical Materialism, 24(2), pp. 25-37. ISSN 1465-4466

Farris, Sara R.. 2015. Migrants’ regular army of labour: gender dimensions of the impact of the global economic crisis on migrant labor in Western Europe. The Sociological Review, 63(1), pp. 121-143. ISSN 0038-0261

Farris, Sara R.. 2015. Féministes de tous les pays, qui lave vos chaussettes? Comment s'en sortir?, 01(01), pp. 203-235.

Farris, Sara R.. 2014. From the Jewish Question to the Muslim Question. Republican Rigorism, Culturalist Differentialism and Antinomiesof Enforced Emancipation. Constellations. An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, 21(2), pp. 296-307. ISSN 1351-0487

Farris, Sara R.. 2013. Neoliberalism, Migrant Women and the Commodification of Care. The Scholar & Feminist Online, 11(1&2), ISSN 1558-9404

Farris, Sara R. and de Jong, Sara. 2013. Discontinuous Intersections: Second-generation Immigrant Girls in Transition from School to Work. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(9), pp. 1505-1525. ISSN 0141-9870

Farris, Sara R.. 2012. Religion as the Source of the Self. Max Weber’s Hypothesis. Social Compass, 59(1), pp. 34-51. ISSN 0037-7686

Farris, Sara R.. 2012. Femonationalism and the 'Regular' Army of Labor called Migrant Women. History of the Present, 2(2), pp. 184-199. ISSN 2159-9785

Farris, Sara R.. 2011. Die politische Ökonomie des Femonationalismus. Feministische Studien, 2, pp. 321-334. ISSN 0723-5186

Farris, Sara R.. 2011. Workerism’s Inimical Incursions: On Mario Tronti’s Weberianism. Historical Materialism, 19(3), pp. 29-62. ISSN 1465-4466

Farris, Sara R.. 2010. An 'Ideal Type' Called Orientalism: Selective Affinities between Edward Said and Max Weber. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 12(2), pp. 265-284. ISSN 1369-801X

Farris, Sara R.. 2010. Interregional Migration and the Challenge for Gender and Development. Development. Society for International Development Journal, 53(1), pp. 98-104. ISSN 1011-6370