Dr Sarah Kunz

Biography

I am a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Essex. Trained in sociology and geography, my research explores privileged migration; the politics of migration categories and knowledge production on migration; the historical relationship between mobility, coloniality and racism; corporate migration management, and the commodification of citizenship. My first monograph ‘Expatriate: Following a Migration Category’ was published with Manchester University Press in 2023. It won the 2024 Philip Abrams Memorial Prize, which is awarded by the British Sociological Association every year for the best first and sole-authored book within the discipline of Sociology. The book draws on ethnographic and archival research to explore the postcolonial history and politics of the category ‘expatriate’, tracing it from the mid-twentieth-century era of decolonisation to today’s heated debates about migration. I currently research the Citizenship Industry, the transnational private sector involved in developing, administering and promoting citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programmes. My project explores how corporate actors have been central to the rise of investment migration and how the Citizenship Industry has over the past two decades become an influential, diversified and profitable global sector. I have extensive experience working with the third sector, including working with the UK Migration Museum to evaluate its Migration Network (which brings together organisations from across the UK museum and heritage sector who work on migration and related themes) and its first touring exhibition 'Heart of the Nation: Migration and the Making of the NHS'. I co-founded and co-convene the Elite Studies Working Group and the BSA Sociology of Elites Study Group. I am also part of PriMob, an IMISCOE network of researchers of privileged migration. I was a co-founding editor of Postgraduate Pedagogies, an open-access journal focused on the experiences and perspectives of GTAs until 2024.

Qualifications

• PhD Geography University College London,

• MSc Sociology London School of Economics and Political Science,

• BA Liberal Arts and Sciences Maastricht University,

Appointments

University of Essex

• Lecturer, University of Essex (1/10/2022 - present)