Lara is a third-year PhD candidate in Comparative Literature and German, and part of the International Writers Track. She began her graduate studies in Professional Writing at the University of Cologne and received her M.A. from Washington University in St. Louis through the Cologne Exchange Program.
Her academic background in German Studies and Musicology informs her interdisciplinary research, which centers on the intersections of sound, literature, and social space, with particular attention to class, race, and gender. Her current work explores industrial and experimental sound cultures, the social economies of noise, urban decline, and postmodern underground movements.
She also engages with feminist theory, especially the recovery of female writers from the late 19th and 20th centuries, and the role of feminist magazines as literary and political platforms.
In addition to her academic work, Lara is a co-founder of the Cologne-based writing collective [in klammern]. She writes fiction and poetry, and is also active as a practitioner of dance and music.