About Me

Hi there! My name is Sara Vannini and since January 2010 I am a PhD Student at the NewMinE Lab - New Media in Education Laboratory -, within the Department of Communication Science at the Università della Svizzera italiana (University of Lugano), Switzerland, under the supervision of prof. Lorenzo Cantoni.

My background is in Latin American Languages and Literatures, and I graduated at the University of Bologna, Italy. My final dissertation was focused on the rescue of of the Mapuche indigenous culture, and was conducted in collaboration with the Universidad Católica de Temuco, Chile, and Gedes, a local NGO. After graduating, I have accrued almost three years of experience working in the Internet field, where I developed a great interest in online communication, participative web and e-learning.

My current research interests are in the ICT4D field: in particular, I am working on the project RE-ACT and I am interested in the social meanings of ICTs and pubblic access to ICTs venues in Mozambique and their e-learning implications.
I also take part to the ProDoc School on Informal Learning CrossField, a joint venture of three units from three Swiss universities, coming from the main linguistic regions of the country: IWP at University of Sankt Gallen, CRAFT at École Politecnique Fédéral de Lausanne, and NewMinE Lab at Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano.