Sarah Ernst

Sarah Ernst (they/them/theirs) is a Ph.D. candidate in USC’s Van Hunnick History Department under the advisement of Wolf Gruner. They passed their written and oral exams in February 2024, with a successful defense of their prospectus in May 2024. Their current dissertation project, “(Un)Belonging: Queer(ing) Life in the Holocaust and Beyond,” uses categories of estrangement and belonging to conceptualize the different layers of community and understandings of self that emerge when many identities are persecuted on various levels. Delving into the experiences of queer individuals in 20th-century Germany, special focus is given to the narratives of those living during the Third Reich who were targeted by the Nazis in mass killing programs, including Jewish, Sinti/Roma, and disabled individuals. Their dissertation research has been supported through various upcoming workshops and conference spaces, including the Queer History Conference (Fullerton, CA, the “Animals and the Holocaust” workshop (Oxford, UK), the German Studies Association Conference (Atlanta, GA), and the German Historical Institute’s Young Scholars Forum (Berkeley, CA). They have also received funding support from the German Historical Institute’s Fritz Thyssen Pre-Dissertation Fellowship and the USC Ralph and Jean Hovel Memorial Summer Travel Award, among others. Sarah received their B.A. in History and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies in 2020 from Brandeis University. While there, they completed a Senior Honors Thesis entitled, “You Mean Something Absolutely Vital to Me”: An Insight into the Lived Experiences of Female Companions to Hysterics in England in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.”