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Laura Ferdinand

Laura Ferdinand
Postdoctoral Scholar
(she/her/hers)
Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching
847.491.5676

Laura joined the Searle Center as a Postdoctoral Fellow in September 2022. She holds a doctorate in Theatre and Drama from Northwestern University where she was named a Presidential Fellow in 2020. Drawing upon her background as a theatre scholar and practitioner, Laura adapts principles and techniques of improvisation and applied theatre pedagogy to develop innovative, engaging teaching methods to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the classroom. She has presented research on this topic at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

With nearly 13 years’ experience as a university teacher at Columbia College Chicago, Miami University, and Northwestern, Laura is pleased to continue working alongside the Northwestern community. Since 2015, she has worked with organizations across campus, serving as a writing fellow at the Graduate Writing Place, the graduate assistant for Northwestern University Press, the President of SPG Improv, and a workshop leader for Searle’s New TA Conference (now the Quarterly Academic Kickoff).