Lara Azzola, Ph.D.
Lara Azzola, Ph.D.
Start Date
January 2012
Interests
Dance • History of Art • Espresso Coffee • Strolling • Hiking • Outdoor Activities • India
“It is very rewarding to witness how students’ relation with their new environment changes in the course of the semester, when they start understanding difference, embracing diversity and becoming more cultural sensitive/nuanced individuals.”
Education
Lara holds a Laurea (bachelor’s degree) in Oriental Language and Literature from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in Italy. She earned a doctorate degree from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, and her research focused on the intersections between ancient Hindu sculpture, iconography, and classical Indian dance styles.
Travel Experience
Lara is from Italy and their opportunities to study abroad for Italian students, especially if interested in extra-European country, were not as developed as in the U.S. If you want to study abroad out of Europe, go for it, but do it on your own. Lara participated into a summer short-term Mandarin language course at the University of Peking and thereafter traveled for one month on her own in China, to visit some important ancient art heritage centers. The next year, following her interest for Asian art, she traveled through Varanasi, North India, to reach Nepal. This travel made her understand that her further studies would have focused on art of Indian subcontinent. In 2000, she enrolled as Ph.D. scholar at Banaras Hindu University and continues to live in the city even after the completion of her dissertation.
Did You Know?
Lara studied several languages, German, English, Chinese, and Hindi (beside her mother tongue, Italian). Lara extensively traveled by train in India for her doctorate fieldwork, including a train ride from Varanasi to Chennai which lasted 42 hours.