Sarah French Brennan, Ph.D.

Sarah French Brennan is a Senior Researcher at the FrameWorks Institute. As an applied anthropologist, she is committed to bridging the divide between academia and advocacy for social justice and progressive change. Her research has focused on intersectional issues of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and refugeeism, with the aim of marrying social science with policy change to create more just and equitable systems. 

In her doctoral dissertation, she explored the Dutch asylum system and the ways queer Muslims, after having experienced persecution and violence at home, navigated the fraught terrain of the so-called European “Refugee Crisis” in the mid-2010s. Other research and publication topics include queer communities in Cairo, technology and democracy in the UK, Muslim youth empowerment in New York, and mental health access in the US.

She holds a BA in Anthropology from American University, a MA and MPhil in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a PhD in Applied Anthropology from Columbia University.