Sara R Farris
Staff details

Sara R. Farris is a sociologist with expertise in social theory, gender, migration and care/social reproduction. She is well known internationally for her research on the mobilisation of feminist themes by nationalist parties within anti-immigration and anti-Islam campaigns, or “femonationalism”.
Her research has been funded by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the European Commission through the Daphne III and Marie Curie Programmes, and the Leverhulme Trust.
She has published several books – including In the Name of Women’s Rights. The Rise of Femonationalism (Duke University Press, 2017) and Max Weber’s Theory of Personality. Individuation, Politics and Orientalism in the Sociology of Religion (Brill 2013) – alongside numerous articles in leading journals.
She is an avid reader of feminist novels. Her review of Elena Ferrante’s quartet was included in the National Theatre Programme of dramatic adaptations of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend in 2019.
Academic qualifications
- Reader 2019
Publications and research outputs
Book
Farris, Sara R.. 2017. In the Name of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism. Durham, NC: 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
Skeggs, Beverley; Farris, Sara R.; Toscano, Alberto and Bromberg, Svenja, eds. 2021. The SAGE Handbook of Marxism. London: SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781473974234
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.. 2021. Gender. In: Beverley Skeggs; Sara R. Farris; Alberto Toscano and Svenja Bromberg, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Marxism. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 268-295. ISBN 9781473974234
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.. 2022. Weber: Religion, Nation and Empire. Journal of Classical Sociology, 22(4), pp. 410-415. ISSN 1468-795X
Farris, Sara R.. 2022. Low-skill no more! essential workers, social reproduction and the legitimacy-crisis of the division of labour. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 23(2-3), pp. 342-358. ISSN 2159-9149
Farris, Sara R.; Yuval-Davis, Nira and Rottenberg, Catherine. 2021. The Frontline as Performative Frame: An Analysis of the UK COVID Crisis. State Crime Journal, 10(2), pp. 284-303. ISSN 2046-6056
Farris, Sara R.. 2020. The business of care: Private placement agencies and female migrant workers in London. Gender, Work & 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. Féministes de tous les pays, qui lave vos chaussettes? Comment s'en sortir?, 01(01), pp. 203-235.
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.. 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