Brent Sandtke is a research Assistant for the Following Frontiers of the Forest City project focusing on the impacts of the new Capital of Indonesia. His areas of research interest and experience lie in qualitative and quantitative social sciences, focusing on Social Impact Assessment (SIA), vulnerable groups, resilience, inclusive and sustainable development, gender equality.

During his Bachelor in History at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, he focused on cultural/social History and he wrote a thesis, looking at the presence of colonial language in Dutch written media of the late 20th century. Specifically in the case of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. In this time he also did a LDE - minor (Leiden University, TU delft, Erasmus University Rotterdam) on Frugal innovations. This included a three month field research at the University in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, on the sustainability and presumptions concerning the palm oil industry.

From 2022, he started master in International Development Studies at Utrecht University comprising of courses and an international field-research collecting data for my Master thesis, shifting focus toward Impact Assessment Research. The fieldwork took place in Jakarta, Indonesia to gather data for a research focusing on Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), trying to look at ways to make this process more inclusive and mitigate the most severe impacts on vulnerable groups like women and migrants.  

Brent holds a BA in Modern Societal History (graduated 2021) at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a MSc in International Development Studies (graduated 2023) at Utrecht University.