Sander Hölsgens (PhD, UCL) is an anthropologist of urban culture and artistic research. His current research examines skateboarding as a contested practice of socio-political resistance. He also uses zine-making and filmmaking to explore questions on affect, pollution, and the body. At Leiden University, he teaches courses in visual ethnography and social theory.

More information about Sander Hölsgens

Funded by a starting grant, Sander currently co-runs Tracing Pollution (2023-2029). This research project uses audiovisual and artistic methods to research the perceived effects of pollution.

Prior to joining Leiden, Sander taught at University College London, where he co-directed The Bartlett Film+Place+Architecture Network and contributed extensively to the UCL Writing Lab. At the University of Groningen, he completed two NWO-funded research projects: 1) Exploring Journalism’s Limits: Enacting and Theorising the Boundaries of the Journalistic Field (postdoc, 2018-2019) and 2) Documenting complexity: Intersections of Documentary, Activism and Technological Innovation (co-applicant and postdoc, 2019-2021).

Sander is one of the founding members of Pushing Boarders, a platform tracing the social impact of skateboarding worldwide. He curates the Rotterdam-based film festival Field Recordings, is a member of the Film Place Collective, and acted as the Visual and New Media editor of Cultural Anthropology between 2015 and 2019. Along with Adelina Ong, Sander co-edited ‘Skate/Worlds: New Pedagogies for Skateboarding’ (2025). He is also the author of ‘Skateboarding and the Senses: Skills, Surfaces, and Spaces’ (2025, with Brian Glenney) and ‘Skateboarding in Seoul: A Sensory Ethnography’ (2021).

Publications