Lara Kothe

Lara Kothe holds a MA in Design Research with a thesis on the critical potential of editorial design and related identity constructions in self-publishing. She participated in the research project “Wir publizieren” (2018-20), which dealt with counter-publics in Switzerland since the 1970s. Since 2017 she has been working as a researcher in the field of design history at the Institute of Design Research at the University of the Arts Bern and was involved as an associated researcher in the SNSF-Sinergia project “Swiss Graphic Design and Typography Revisited” (2016-20). As part of her research activities, she co-coordinated the project “Alternative Media Design” and investigated the role of design in alternative media strategies. Since 2020, she has been teaching in various areas, including “History of Visual Communication” and “Academic Writing” in the Visual Communication bachelor’s programme. Lara is a regular guest lecturer at the Y Institute for Transdisciplinarity and acts as mentor and examiner. She currently works at the Critical Media Lab, where she is involved in the development of the research area Critical Publishing, and as a PhD Candidate in the SNSF project Sharing Knowledge in the Arts.