In 1994, Hansen received her doctorate at the University of Hamburg with a sociolinguistic thesis on a special form of bilingualism.

In her first novel, Altes Land (2015), Hansen worked critically on the subject of homeland: many city dwellers discovered the countryside as a place of longing for themselves and moved to a village.

[3] Hansen connects this topic with the fate of the female protagonist as a homeless postwar refugee from East Prussia in the Altes Land.

The cultural and interpersonal change in the fictional North Frisian village "Brinkebüll" is portrayed from the 1960s to the present day.

[9] The author tells the story without idealizing country life and draws in laconic language often bizarre characters with a lot of empathy.