Sara Byala was born in Johannesburg, South Africa but raised and educated in the United States. She holds a B.A. from Tufts University and both a Masters and Ph.D. from Harvard University. She is author of A Place That Matters Yet: John Gubbins’s MuseumAfrica in the Postcolonial World (University of Chicago Press, 2013), a historical monograph that examines modern South Africa through the lens of a cultural history museum.

Sara is a Senior Lecturer in Critical Writing and History at the University of Pennsylvania. She also holds an associate research position with the Archive and Public Culture Initiative at the University of Cape Town. She is currently working on a book on the history of Coca-Cola in Africa. She lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband, three children, and large dog.