Sarah Best

Office Hours

During the lecture period: Tuesdays, 12-2 pm by appointment via ILIAS.

During the semester break: by appointment.

Research Focus

• Feminisms, Gender, and Sexuality in the MENA region
• Discourse and Subjectification research
• Postcolonial theory and practice
• Qualitative methods of social research and research ethics
• Regional focuses: Maghreb and Israel/Palestine.

Publications

Best, Sarah. Heteronormativität – eine Einführung. In Birkle, Carmen; Meier, Christl M.; Maurer, Susanne; Wuttig, Bettina (2025, in Progress): Geschlechterforschung: Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium. Baden-Baden: Nomos

Best, Sarah; Aytaç, Deniz; Khaled Safear, Galala  & Maria Schröder-Best. Universität und Kolonialismus - Strategien, Maßnahmen und Denkanstöße zur Dekolonialisierung des universitären Raumes. In: Brüning, C. & Gessner, S. (Hrsg.) (2024, Forthcoming). Decolonize Teacher Education?! Wieviel postkolonial studies brauchen die gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Didaktiken? Frankfurt/M.: Wochenschau Verlag.

Best, Sarah & Helena Hanneder. Did dykes die out or where have they gone? An interdisciplinary analysis of a key term in queer archives, (December 2023, Forthcoming), Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, Vol. 26, Issue 3/4.  

Academic Background

Sarah Best has been a research assistant and doctoral student at the Department of Middle East Politics since May 2020.

From January 2017 to September 2019, she worked as an editorial assistant for the interdisciplinary online journal Middle East Topics & Arguments (META).

Sarah Best studied Arabic Studies, Islamic Studies, and Political Science (B.A.) at the University of Münster and obtained a Master's degree in International Development Studies from the University of Marburg. During her studies, she completed several stays abroad in France, Tunisia, and the Palestinian territories.

After completing her Bachelor's degree, she worked as a guest researcher for the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Jerusalem, where she was responsible for reporting on political developments in the Palestinian territories. As a board member of liqa e.V., she designed and implemented a student exchange project with Tunisian students on behalf of the DAAD from 2016 to 2018.

Memberships

German Association for Political Science - Section on Politics and Gender

Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futures Research

DAVO - Working Group on Postcolonial Perspectives.

Conference Presentations

Summer School "Decolonize Teacher Education - Wieviel Postkoloniale Theorie brauchen die gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Fachdidaktiken?", Marburg, Juli 2022 - "Lehre dekolonisieren"

European Feminist Research Conference, Mailand, Juni 2022 - "Did dykes die out or where have they gone? An interdisciplinary analysis of a key term in queer archives"

Spring School "Decolonizing Gender Studies", Kassel, April 2022 - "Welche Methoden können wir als kritische Forscher*innen nutzen? Zum Collective Biography-Ansatz"

Spring School "Decolonizing Gender Studies", Kassel, April 2022 - Sarah Best, Maria Schröder, Galala Safear und Deniz Aytac: "Dekoloniale und diskriminierungssensible Lehre"