Laura is a PhD candidate in the Department of Human-Centred Design exploring intersections of Critical Futures, Critical and Participatory Design, Critical Pedagogy and Public Engagement. Her PhD research seeks to understand how design can contribute to the development of more critical, inclusive and democratic ways of engaging with futures, with a specific focus on public participation. She is considering the potentials and challenges of critical participatory futuring in the contexts of natural disaster, flood risk management and climate adaptation in the Netherlands.

In general Laura is interested in the intersections of art, design and public engagement, philosophies of knowledge, ethnographic methodologies and conceptual analysis.

Previously she was a tutor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University, where she also obtained a MSc Arts and Culture (Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology). Her masters thesis considered the analogy between speculative design and thought experiments. Before coming to The Netherlands she studied at the University of Sydney, majoring in Theatre and Performance Studies.