Dr Sarah Ann Frank (she/her)

I am a social and military historian. My research focuses on the Second World War and its aftermath in the French and British African colonies. I am currently the project lead on my £1.6 million UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, ‘Rebuilding lives, redefining belonging: ex-soldiers, their families and communities in post-war Africa, 1945-60’. This project builds a holistic understanding of the things veterans experience and do after war. Because the Second World War remains a pivotal moment in our collective social and political identities, my project looks at the period of massive change between 1945 and 1965. We will see how family units became a space for resistance, radicalisation, or loyalty as they rebuilt their lives in a decolonising world. By establishing the voices of African veterans and their families—particularly women—as equally important and deserving of study, we will be positioned to shape reintegration programmes for veterans today with culturally specific practices.

My first monograph, Hostages of Empire: Colonial Prisoners of War in Vichy France, won the 2022 Alf Andrew Heggoy Prize and was shortlisted for the Gladstone Prize. Based on research in 17 archives across 5 countries, it examines the experiences of 85,000 soldiers captured by the German army in 1940. While white POWs were taken to Germany, these colonial prisoners were interned across Occupied France. My book goes beyond previous stories of war captivity, offering an in-depth analysis of the daily lives of men from across the French African, Asian and Caribbean empire.

Six weeks after my undergraduate graduation I moved to Guinea and then Senegal. After three years in West Africa, I completed an M.Phil and a PhD at Trinity College Dublin. From there I moved to the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State in South Africa for a postdoctoral research fellowship. Academia then brought me to the UK where I spent three wonderful years at the University of St Andrews. I moved to Sheffield to join the Department of History in 2021.