Laura Eigenmann is a postdoctoral researcher in the project “Discovering Equality: Policy discourses on gender equity and diversity in science in Europe and the US”, which is part of the research stream “Diffusion of Policy Ideas on Gender and Diversity”.

She studied gender studies and sociology at the University of Basel. Afterwards, she worked as a lecturer, programme coordinator and student advisor at the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Basel. From 2018-2019 she received a mobility grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation and was a visiting researcher at King’s College London, the School for Advanced Legal Studies in London, and Temple University in Philadelphia. 

In 2022, she received her PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Basel. In her dissertation “From the Margins to a Mission: How the EU became a promotor of LGBTI rights”, she investigated the EU’s LGBTI policy development, asking why and how LGBTI rights came to be seen as a symbol for the EU’s identity and “core values”.

Her research interests include discourse analysis, critical policy analysis, gender and sexual politics, LGBTI activism, national and EU identity discourses, homonationalism, and queer history.

Eigenmann, Laura (2022) “‘This Is a Union of Values’: The Rise of the LGBTI Rights Norm as Part of the EU’s Identity Construction”, Social Politics, 29(1), pp. 95–117.

Eigenmann, Laura (2021) “’United in diversity’: resonances of the ’global gay’ in EU identity discourses”, in Zhou, R. Y., Sinding, C., and Goellnicht, D. (eds.) Sexualities, Transnationalism and Globalization. New Perspectives. New York, London: Routledge, pp. 123-136. 

Eigenmann, Laura (2019): “From the Margins to a Mission”, in: History | Sexuality | Law.

Eigenmann, Laura (2016) “Zur Kritik der Homonationalismus-Kritik”, in Leicht, I., Löw, C., Meisterhans, N., and Volk, K. (eds.) Feministische Kritiken und Menschenrechte. Reflexionen auf ein produktives Spannungsverhältnis. Opladen: Barbara Budrich (Politik und Geschlecht), pp. 75–94.

Bürgi, Sophie/Eigenmann, Laura/Luterbach, Matthias/Thym, Anika (2016): Exzellenz und/oder vielfältige Lebensentwürfe. 7 Aspekte des Lebens und Arbeitens an der philosophisch-historischen Fakultät der Universität Basel. Broschüre, Universität Basel.