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Dr. Willemien Sanders is a Media and Performance Studies Researcher at the Department of Media and Culture Studies within the Department of Humanities at Utrecht University. She is affiliated with the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON) and specializes in documentary filmmaking, media production, and gender studies.
Willemien holds a Master's degree in Film and Television Studies from Utrecht University and completed her PhD in 2012 with the thesis "Participatory spaces. Negotiating cooperation and conflict in documentary project," which examined ethics in documentary filmmaking. Her academic journey includes working for the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam and various cultural organizations before pursuing her doctoral research.
Her research focuses on documentary ethics, production cultures, digital humanities, and gender representation in media. She has conducted significant work on the position of female professionals in the Dutch film and television sector, collaborating with the foundation Vrouwen in Beeld (Women in the Picture). Her scholarly output spans documentary theory, media production studies, and digital archive practices, with a consistent emphasis on participatory approaches and ethical considerations in media creation. Her publications demonstrate a trajectory from traditional documentary studies toward contemporary digital media practices and gender-focused industry analysis.
Willemien has been actively involved in several major research projects including EUscreenXL, which developed a portal for European public broadcasters' archive material, and SiFTI, which investigated production cultures across multiple European countries. She has also contributed to smaller projects related to interactive documentary and digitized archives.
As an educator, she has extensive experience teaching media and culture studies. Professionally, she previously served as an advisor to the Dutch Cultural Media Fund and as co-chair of the Media Production Analysis Working Group of IAMCR, and currently serves on IAMCR's International Council. Her media commentary regularly appears in Dutch outlets on topics ranging from documentary ethics to gender representation in the film industry.
Her research team collaborates closely with industry partners including Vrouwen in Beeld and professional film and television organizations to ensure practical relevance and impact on media production practices in the Netherlands.
