Laure Sandoz currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, University of Basel and 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. She contributes to two research projects on the management of highly skilled migration towards Switzerland and on the spatial mobility capital of entrepreneurs in Europe and Latin America. She obtained her PhD from the University of Basel in May 2018 and won the MPDI/GRACE Engagement Award for her innovative research, initiatives and activities in social engagement in line with regional development in the Basel area.
She studied anthropology, psychology and migration studies in Switzerland (University of Neuchâtel) and Germany (Freie Universität Berlin). As part of her Master in socialsciences, she specialized in development studies and conducted an ethnographic field-research on the local re-appropriations of an agroforestry project in tropical Bolivia. Parallel to her studies, Laure Sandoz worked as a secretary and administrative coordinator 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. As a main mission, she taught English during six months in a Kichwa village of the Amazon region.