Sara de Jong began her scientific career in her home country, the Netherlands. She received her master's degree in critical theory and politics from the University of Nottingham, where she completed her PhD as well. In October 2012 she came to Austria with an Ernst Mach worldwide scholarship and spent a year conducting research at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Vienna.
Her research is situated in the area of migration and development, especially at the interface between those who migrate and "develop" and those who work with them. This is where the so-called "cultural brokers" play a special role, a term for people who mediate between cultures. “Cultural brokers” have existed since the start of long-distance trips and travels, because humans have always been confronted with “the stranger” and have been in need for not only linguistic, but also cultural "translation".
For Sara de Jong, politics is not primarily party politics. Rather it means to look at the larger picture of the functioning and existence of society and language from a political point of view.
