Sarah Combellick-Bidney

Associate Professor, Co-Chair of Political Science

CB 53
612-330-1420
combell@augsburg.edu

Sarah Combellick-Bidney came to Augsburg in 2009. After a series of projects taking her to Russia, Mongolia, and India, she enjoys seeing students develop new passions as they relate their lives to current events and struggles around the world. She teaches comparative politics courses, as well as the foundational course in the pre-law concentration.

“My teaching is not a purely intellectual exercise. I seek to involve students’ whole selves in the process of learning, just as I invest my whole self in the journey.”

The connections between individual and collective action are made real to her as she witnesses them in her community and sees them take shape in the classroom. Most of all, she enjoys getting to know students and their interests, finding new ways to use political science to empower them on any life path they choose to take.

Education

B.A. Oberlin College

M.A. Indiana University-Bloomington

Ph.D. Indiana University-Bloomington

Current Research Interests

Her current research investigates various community responses to the challenges of globalization, with an emphasis on gender and the politics of reproduction.

Publications

Her recent publications include “Reproductive rights as human rights: stories from advocates in Brazil, India and South Africa” in International Journal of Human Rights, 2017; “Only Through the Body: Reproductive Justice and the Practice of Embodied Theory” with Arianna Genis in Women’s Studies 2017, “The Political Is Personal: Using Political Life Narratives to Engage Students” in PS: Political Science & Politics, 2015; and “Mongolia’s Mining Controversy and the Politics of Place,” in Julian Dierkes, ed. Change in Democratic Mongolia: Social Relations, Health, Mobile Pastoralism, and Mining, (Brill Press, 2012).

Areas of Teaching and Responsibility at Augsburg University

Sarah Combellick-Bidney teaches comparative and international relations courses on law and society, globalization and social movements, and US foreign policy.