Sander Hölsgens

Sander Hölsgens (PhD, UCL) is an anthropologist who mobilises experimental media, installation, and performance to scrutinise socio-cultural practices of resistance. Trained as a documentary filmmaker and having worked as a journalist for over a decade, he works at HU to interrogate the transformative possibilities of education. Sander is one of the founding members of Pushing Boarders, a platform tracing the social impact of skateboarding worldwide, while curating the film festival Field Recordings since 2018. Sander acted as the Visual and New Media editor of Cultural Anthropology between 2015 and 2019, and is the author of ‘Skateboarding in Seoul: A Sensory Ethnography’ (2021).

Next to his lectureship at HU, Sander also teaches at Leiden University.

• Anthropology and cultural studies
• Mixed-media storytelling
• Engaged and critical pedagogy
• The politics and mediation of sports (skateboarding)

Sander’s current research continues to explore:

• the anthropology of skateboarding as a contested practice of resistance
• engaged and critical pedagogy as transformative approaches to education
• the feminist critiques of emerging media technologies

• Field Recordings Festival – 2018- – Rotterdam – Curator
• Film Place Collective – 2015- – London – Editor

Professional publications

• Hölsgens, S. (2021). Polyphony and solidarity, or how to do things with documentaries. In: Kuckuck Issue 21, pp.66-67.
• Hölsgens, S. & Callan-Riley (ed.). (2020). Urban Pamphleteer Issue 8: Skateboardings. London: UCL Urban Laboratory. http://urbanpamphleteer.org/skateboardings
• Hölsgens, S. (2020). Expedition Content: Michael Rockefeller kwam, observeerde en keerde nooit terug. In: Filmkrant, September 2020, pp.16-17.
• Hölsgens, S. (2020). Open Rescue: Direct Action Everywhere and the porous VR headset. In: Non-Fiction, Vol.1, pp.34-39.
• Hölsgens, S. (2020). Building a professional skate career with Candy Jacobs. In: Jenkem Magazine, April 2020. https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2020/04/02/building-skate-career-candy-jacobs/
• Hölsgens, S. (2019). University of Skate: ‘Community before Cliques’ – An Interview with Indigo Willing. In: Skateism, June 2019. https://www.skateism.com/university-of-skate-community-before-cliques-an-interview-with-indigo-willing/
• Hölsgens, S. (2018). Hell and Marble: Inside South Korea’s Skate Scene. In: Vice, April 2018. https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3ykez/hell-and-marble-inside-south-koreas-skate-scene
• Hölsgens, S. (2018). Filming Too Close: Four Fragments on Naomi Kawase. In Another Gaze, Vol. 2, pp.60-64. Also available online via: https://www.anothergaze.com/filming-close-naomi-kawase-caring-filmic-gesture/

Scholarly publications

• Hölsgens, S., Nguyen, P.T., Paveck, H., Loewen, R., Sborgi, A. (2022). Amidst: Afterimage, Affect, Architecture. In: Chee, L. & Mindrup, M. (eds). Remote Practices. London: Lund Humpries.
• Hölsgens, S. (2021). Skateboarding in Seoul: A Sensory Ethnography. Groningen: University of Groningen Press.
• Hölsgens, S. (ed.). (2021). In Whose Name? Cultural Anthropology, September 2021. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/series/in-whose-name
• Hölsgens, S. (2020). ‘This body was just a body: Sky Hopinka’s Dislocation Blues’. In: Visual Anthropology Review, Vol.36-2, pp.412-417.
• Hölsgens, S., De Wildt, S., & Witschge, T. (2020). ‘Walking the Newsroom: Towards a Sensory Experience of Journalism’. In: Journal for Artistic Research, Issue 21, online.
• Hölsgens, S., De Wildt, S., & Witschge, T. (2020). ‘Towards an experientialist understanding of journalism: Exploring arts-based research for journalism studies’. In: Journalism Studies, Vol, 21-7, pp.928-946.
• Askari, L. & Hölsgens, S. (2020). ‘Bridge to Kobani: Future Imaginaries and Visual Approaches to Kurdish Migration’. In: Arkomanis, E. (Ed.). Migrations in New Cinema, pp.55-64. London: Cours de Poétique.
• Hölsgens, S. (2019). ‘Skill acquisition and Korean postcolonial architecture: toward a phenomenology of skateboarding in Seoul, South Korea’. In: Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Vol.43-5, pp.368-385.
• Hölsgens, S. (2018). ‘Towards a spatial understanding of colour: the blue bedroom in Yasujiro Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon’. In: New Approaches to Cinematic Spaces, pp. 205- 216. London: Routledge.

• PhD by design, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (2018)
• MA, Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester (2014)
• MA, Artistic Research, Maastricht University (2013)
• BA, Arts and Culture, Maastricht University (2012)