Dr. Laura Lazzari is a Scholar in Motherhood Studies and the Medical Humanities. She works for the Sasso Corbaro Foundation for the the Medical Humanities, Switzerland (an institute affiliated with the Università della Svizzera Italiana and the Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale), is a Research Scholar at the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Georgetown, and an Affiliate Faculty at the Medical Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University.
Before joining the Sasso Corbaro Foundation for the Medical Humanities, she was a Research Scholar, Lecturer and Italian Program Coordinator at the Catholic University of America (2016-2019), the recipient of an AAUW International Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Italian at Georgetown University (2015-2016), and a Professorial Lecturer in Italian Studies at George Washington University (2014-2024).
She studied Italian, French and History of Art at the University of Lausanne, where she obtained an MA in 2001. She also holds a Diploma of Teaching French as a Foreign Language from the same university (2000). In 2005 she was awarded a scholarship from Lausanne University, in order to spend a year at the University of Oxford, where she obtained a Master of Studies in Women’s Studies. In June 2009 she completed a PhD in Italian literature (Lausanne University), and an MA in Teaching (SUPSI, DFA).
As an Assistant Professor in Italian Studies at Franklin University Switzerland and Coordinator at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (2011-2014) she taught several courses in Italian language, Italian Studies and Italian literature with a focus on gender studies, and carried out many different initiatives to enhance the Italian and Modern Languages curricula. Prior to joining Franklin University she worked as a graduate assistant in Italian literature at the University of Lausanne (2003-2008), and as a Lecturer at the University of Fribourg (2009-2011).
She has published on a wide range of subjects and has given papers in graduate schools and international conferences in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the United States.
Her interests in research revolve around autobiographies in the Renaissance period, women’s writings in the Italian-speaking world, migrant literature, motherhood studies, the medical humanities, pedagogy and language acquisition. She is a member of various associations, including the Collegium Romanicum, the Swiss Association of Romance languages.
Academic Appointment(s)
- Primary
- Adjunct Lecturer, College - Medical Humanities