Lorenza Mondada receives honorary doctorate from Linköping University

Mondada is a leading worldwide expert in the field of linguistics, who has published widely on the interrelationship of language, embodiment, space and mobility. Her empirical studies of multimodal interaction in a wide range of activities – from rallying to cheese tasting – have been instrumental in viewing human language as a dynamic resource.

As a former regular visiting professor at the Institute for Culture and Communication of Linköping University in the years 2010-2013, Mondada has strongly influenced interaction research at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, according to the explanatory statement. Since then, the Basel linguist has worked closely with several faculty scientists, leading to joint scientific meetings and internationally recognized publications.

The honorary doctorate ceremony will take place at the end of May 2018 as part of the academic celebration of Linköping University.

International career

Lorenza Mondada, born in 1963 in Locarno, received her doctorate in 1994 from the University of Lausanne and habilitated in 2000 in General and Romanic Linguistics at the University of Basel, where she taught from 1996 to 2001. Her academic has taken her to the USA (UC Berkeley), Brazil (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), England (King's College London), Germany (Bielefeld University), Sweden (Linköping University), Finland (Helsinki University) and Japan.

From 2001 to 2011 Mondada was a professor of linguistics at the Université Lumière Lyon 2. Since January 2012, she has been a professor for French and General Linguistics at the University of Basel. From 2015 to 2017, she has also been Finland Distinguished Professor with a project funded by the Academy of Finland.

Mondada received the National Latsis Prize of the Swiss National Science Foundation in 2001. In 2013 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Southern Denmark.