Sandra Simonsen is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Her areas of interests include Journalism, political communication, framing theory, discourse analysis, war, social identity and group conflict including inclusion and exclusion and how that manifest in language. Her doctoral research focuses on migration frames in national media environments and socio economic conditions related to migration in Sweden and Denmark.
Sandra Simonsen completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Aarhus University (Denmark) in 2012. She explored the life-affirming dimension of Nietzsche’s philosophy in her BA thesis by analyzing the concepts “the Superhuman”, “Will to Power” and “the Eternal Recurrence”. In 2015, she completed her Master’s Degree in Journalism from Aarhus University and the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Her thesis examined war legitimation in political communication.
Currently, Sandra is a Visiting Assistant in Research at Yale University where she is a part of a research group in the Center for Cultural Sociology.
Publications
Zelinsky, D., Smith, P. and Simonsen, S. Forthcoming. From Remarque to Rubbish: A Model of Literary Degradation.
Sandra, S. Forthcoming. Collective identity as a cultural explanation for crisis response: The 2015 Migration and Refugee Crisis and the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis in Sweden as Cases.
Simonsen, S. 2020. Pigs, Bacteria and Garbage: Metaphors in Jewish Ultra-Orthodox Propaganda. Journal of Language and Politics 19(6). DOI:10.1075/jlp.19109.sim
Simonsen, S. 2019. Discursive Legitimation Strategies: The Evolving Legitimation of War in Israeli Public Diplomacy. Discourse & Society 30(5). DOI:10.1177/0957926519855786
Previous work
2015: Communications and project officer in Al-Razi. (Palestinian NGO located in Al-Ram, Jerusalem)
2014: Communications officer in the Danish House in Palestine. (Danish NGO located in Ramallah)
2013: Communications and Press officer at Radikale Venstre (Danish political party then in government