Sandra Geelhoed works as senior researcher in the Research group Organising Decent Work. For over 20 years, her research has concentrated on issues in which imagined communities play a central role. Her work is guided by a strong interest in social movements, human dignity and social justice.
Sandra specialises in narrative research, focussing from an actor approach on themes that lie on the interface between culture and politics. She was trained in action-oriented research in the tradition of the school of Alain Touraine (sociological analysis and intervention). In 2007, Sandra was awarded a doctorate by the École des hautes études en sciences sociales for her thesis on ‘the publisher as social actor’ and the way in which he visualises social imagination, social creativity and experience via the publication of books. Her thesis supervisor was Michel Wieviorka.
Sandra is a lecturer in the Master Community Development programme and the Media and Culture minor. She also works as a senior researcher within the Horizon 2020 project COSIE on the utilisation of storytelling and community reporting methods to study and give shape to the labour and inclusion line of research. Moreover, she is one of the catalysts and champions of the Kennis Netwerk Narratief Verantwoorden in het Sociale domein (‘Knowledge Network for Narrative Justification in the Social Domain’).
Sandra is currently serving as a member of the Board of Stichting Vredeswetenschappen and of the International Advisory Board of the journal Cross Sections. In addition, she heads her own company for social and cultural projects, Yellow Hat Jack.
Fields of research
- Narrative research
- Storytelling
- Community reporting