Sandra Schlumpf-Thurnherr obtained her doctorate in Ibero-Romance linguistics in Basel in 2014 and completed her habilitation in Spanish linguistics in 2024 with a project on the Equatorial Guinean community in Madrid. Her academic career includes teaching and research assignments at the University of Basel and University of Bern, mentoring junior researchers, leadership roles at the Hermann Paul School of Linguistics Basel-Freiburg, and participation in national and international research collaborations.  

Her research combines synchronous and diachronic approaches to language, with a particular focus on sociolinguistics, postcolonial linguistics, language contact, language and migration, Ladino, historical linguistics and varieties of Spanish in Spain, Latin America, Africa and Asia. In her fieldwork in Equatorial Guinea, Spain and Switzerland, she investigates multilingualism, linguistic ideologies, language contact phenomena and language change.