Sarah completed her undergraduate degrees in History and History Education at Boston University, a Masters in Liberal Arts at The Johns Hopkins University, and a Masters in Global and International Comparative History at Georgetown University. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Art History at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the material culture of al-Andalus in the eighth and ninth centuries in the Southern Meseta (central Spain) and the ways in which laws passed in twentieth century Spain affect the display of Andalusi heritage in cultural sites. Her thesis, "Hidden in Plain Sight: The Occlusion of North African Settlement in Central Spain", investigates medieval Arabic texts from the eighth to tenth centuries that describe the Southern Meseta and the Islamicate fortresses and material culture of the Tajo River Valley that date to the same period.

She currently works as a Research Assistant in Glaire Anderson's Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture and Collections.  Past work has included a collaboration with the National Museums of Scotland to create a visitors' guide for an astrolabe of Muhammad ibn al-Saffar (11th century).

Her research interest lies in the ways in which race and constructions of ethnicity in cultural heritage sites have led to the misremembering of history.  She was delighted to partner with the Fruitmarket Gallery in the Spring of 2022 to lead a conversation focused on Howardena Pindell's writings on race and the art world for their exhibition Howardena Pindell: A New Language.

Awards

Oleg Grabar Travel Grant, Historians of Islamic Art Association, Summer 2021

ARTES CEEH Travel Scholarship, ARTES Iberian & Latin American Visual Culture Group, Spring 2020

Travel Grant, Edinburgh College of Art, Spring 2020

Global Research Scholarship, University of Edinburgh, Fall 2019-Spring 2022

College Research Award, University of Edinburgh, Fall 2019-Spring 2022

Committees

Social Media Committee Chair and member of Student Committee, International Center of Medieval Art (Summer 2021-present)

Student Organizing Committee, Emerging Researchers Symposium, New Themes and Ideas in Studies of Iberian and Latin American Art History, Joint Conference of Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art at Durham University and the University of Edinburgh College of Art (July 2021)

Student Organizing Committee, 2021 End of Year Edinburgh College of Art History of Art Research Symposium (June 2021)

Student Organizing Committee, 4th Annual Late Antique, Islamic, and Byzantine Society Conference, University of Edinburgh (November 2020)