Sara Halpern arrives at St. Olaf, bringing a wealth of experiences as a world traveler, a marathon runner, and a woman with disabilities (cochlear implant in one ear). And some New York Jewishness.
Research
Dr. Halpern is completeing a monograph, Saving the Unwanted: Shanghai's Jewish Refugees and the Global Struggle for Humanitarianism, 1943-1949. It transforms a little-known Holocaust story of survival of 15,000 Central European Jewish refugees into a global microhistory of post-World War II global refugee crisis. It explores the limits of the universality of humanitarianism and cross-cultural dialogues against the backdrop of decolonization, persistent antisemitism, and the Cold War.
Dr. Halpern has published in American Jewish History. More recently, her essay, "'A Problem of Some Delicacy: Chinese Sovereignty, Jewish Refugees, and the West, 1945-1946” in the edited volue, The History of Shanghai Jewish Refugees: New Pathway in Research (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022). She has a forthcoming essay on the impact of statelessness for Jewish refugees in Shanghai in an edited volume by Jay Winter and Kolleen Guy (Cambridge University Press). Currently, she is researching the management and care of elderly and disabled Jewish refugees in Shanghai for a journal article.
Dr. Halpern's work has been internationally and nationally recognized through fellowships and grants including, but not limited to, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Studienstiftung des Deustchen Vlkes/Leo-Baeck Programme, Association for Jewish Studies, American Academy for Jewish Research, and Social Sciences Research Council.
Teaching
Dr. Halpern teaches courses in Modern Europe with global and transnational foci. She is especially interested in migration, racism, empires, and the Holocaust. As a teacher, Dr. Halpern works with students, of different abilities, life experiences, and backgrounds, reach their true potential as learners and human-beings. In addition, she believes in helping students develop self-advocacy, a critical life-long skill.