Sanne Akkerman is full professor of Educational Science at ICLON, Leiden University. She obtained her master’s degree in Educational Sciences at Radboud University of Nijmegen, based on a one-year research internship at the University of Turku and University of Helsinki. She conducted her doctoral research at Utrecht University, after which she received her PhD, cum laude, in 2006 for her dissertation Strangers in dialogue. Academic collaboration across organizational boundaries. After her PhD, she continued working at Utrecht University at the faculty of Social Sciences, in the position of assistant and associate professor, during the last years including being coordinator of the two-year research master Educational Sciences: Learning in Interaction. She established a new journal Frontline Learning Research for the European Association of Research on Learning and Instruction and is editor of this journal. She came to Leiden University in September 2017

  Sanne Akkerman’s research centres around interest and identity development of students and professionals (specifically teachers, academics and medical professionals). She has particular attention for the dynamics and multiplicity of interests and identities of students and professionals in and across the multiple contexts in education, work and beyond that they typically participate in. An influential study concerns a literature review conducted with Arthur Bakker on Boundary Crossing, synthesizing research on learning across contexts in light of the increasing mobility of people as well as the new interdisciplinary and interorganizational collaborations one witnesses in field of education and many professions.