Laure Sandoz currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Geography, University of Neuchâtel. She is part of the NCCR On the Move, an interdisciplinary project financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation, which aims to enhance the understanding of contemporary migration patterns. Her research focuses on the spatial mobility capital of transnational entrepreneurs in Europe and Latin America. She obtained her PhD from the University of Basel in May 2018 for her project on the mobility of the “highly skilled” towards Switzerland.

Parallel to her research, Laure Sandoz actively engages in knowledge transfer activities to foster exchanges between academics and the broader public. She is a co-founder of the Swiss Network of Young Migration Scholars, an association that aims to enhance collaborations between young migration researchers from different scientific disciplines, universities and language regions in Switzerland. She regularly writes blog articles (see: Fakten statt Mythen and NCCR On the Move Blog) and organises public events about migration (e.g. Thinking without Borders; Mobilität – Der Weg zum Erfolg?). She also coordinates meetings where researchers interested in migration can exchange about their projects. Together with her research team, she won the MPDI/GRACE Engagement Award 2017 for her innovative research, initiatives and activities in social engagement in line with regional development in the Basel area.

Laure Sandoz studied anthropology, psychology and migration studies in Switzerland and Germany. As part of her Master in social sciences, she specialized in development studies and conducted an ethnographic field-research on the local appropriations of an agroforestry project in tropical Bolivia, which obtained the Interdisciplinary Academic Award for Sustainable Development of the University of Neuchâtel in 2015. Parallel to her studies, Laure Sandoz worked as a secretary at the Centre for Migration Law, a collaboration between researchers in law and social sciences from the Universities of Neuchâtel, Bern and Fribourg.

Before her studies, Laure Sandoz lived during eight months in Ecuador, where she volunteered in several projects with the Yanapuma Foundation. As a main mission, she taught English during six months in a Kichwa village of the Amazon region.

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