I am a human geographer with research interests in geographies of education and youth, education policy and governance, urban inequalities, educational transitions, and qualitative methods.

My Ph.D. project draws on ethnographic research to study the relations between education policy and urban socioeconomic inequalities by focusing on the lives of young people at educational transitions. My project is part of the SNSF-funded study Young people's transition to Gymnasium and the role of private and public supplementary learning programs. Find more here.

I am part of the research group Geographies of Young People and Education.

Since 2021: Doctoral Candidate in Human Geography, University of Zurich

10/2023-12/2023: Visiting scholar at Loyola University Chicago (supported with a GRC Travel Grant)

2021: Master of Science in Geography, University of Zurich

2019: Bachelor of Science in Geography (Major, University of Zurich) and Cartography (Minor, ETH Zurich)

Ungleichheit am Übertritt ans Gymnasium: Input für Sekundarlehrpersonen zu aktuellen Forschungsergebnissen (04/2025). Vortrag mit I. Bauer, Zürich/CH.

The learnings of policy enactment: student perspectives on social justice in Zurich’s selective secondary school admissions (08/2024). Paper presentation at the Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London, UK.

Pathways to Nowhere and Everywhere: School "Options" as Mechanisms of Stratification Across Urban Contexts (08/2024). Roundtable presentation with C. Park at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montréal, CA.

Privilege Forged in Space: Student Experiences in Transitioning to Zurich’s Highly Selective Public Secondary Schools (08/2024). Paper presentation with C. Reh at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, Montréal, CA.

A Spatial Analysis of Elite-Making at State-Funded Selective Grammar Schools in Zurich, Switzerland (04/2024). Paper presentation with C. Reh at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, online.

Using Spatial Analysis to Explore the Role of Urban Inequalities in Adolescent Students’ Elite Identity Formation (11/2023). Visiting scholar lecture co-hosted by the Schools of Social Work, Education and Sociology at Loyola University Chicago, Chicago/US.

Public Secondary Schools as Unintentional Drivers of Educational Injustice at the Transition to Gymnasium (08/2023). Poster presentation at the Conference of the Academy of Sociology, Bern/CH.

#DON’T GIVE UP – Techniken der Selbstführung Jugendlicher am Bildungsübertritt ans Zürcher Kurzzeitgymnasium (06/2023). Paper Präsentation am Jahreskongress der Schweizerischen Gesellschaften für Bildungsforschung und Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung, Zürich/CH.

Technologien des Selbst unter Jugendlichen: Eine gouvernementalitätstheoretische Betrachtung des Bildungsübertritts ans Gymnasium in Zürich (01/2023). Paper Präsentation an der Tagung Neue Kulturgeographien, Halle/DE.

Of Aspirations, Discipline and Solidarity: an Ethnography of a Highly Selective Educational Transition in Zurich (09/2022). Project presentation at the Humangeographische Sommerschule, Bernau/DE.

Ungleichheit am Übertritt ans Gymnasium: Workshop für Zürcher Bildungsexpert:innen zu aktuellen Forschungsergebnissen (11/2024). Vortrag und Workshop für Bildungsexpert:innen mit I. Bauer, S. Landolt, C. Reh, Zürich/CH.

Von Nachbarschaft, Einzugsgebiet und Schulkreis: Welche Rolle spielt Geographie in den Bildungsdisparitäten am Bildungsübertritt ans Zürcher Gymnasium? (01/2024). Vortrag und Workshop für Gymnasialehrpersonen mit C. Reh am HSGYM Hochschultag, Zürich/CH.

Der Übertritt Jugendlicher ans Gymnasium und die Rolle privater und öffentlicher Prüfungsvorbereitungsprogramme (03/2023). Vortrag und Workshop mit I. Bauer, S. Landolt, C. Reh, H. Sommer an der Schulleitungskonferenz Schulkreis Uto, Zürich/CH.

Educational Inequalities in Urban Contexts (Spring 2024). Course Catalogue

Supervision Bachelor Thesis (Spring 2024). Course Catalogue

Humangeographie II: Gesellschaftliche und natürliche Ressourcen (Spring 2023/24). Course Catalogue

Grundkurs Geographie II: Internationale Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (Spring 2022/23). Course Catalogue

Small Group Teaching (Fall 2021/22). Course Catalogue

Human Geography IV: Humangeographische Methoden der Datenerhebung (Spring 2019/20, module assistant). Course Catalogue

Landolt, L. & Reh, C. (2025). Privilege forged in space: student experiences in transitioning to Zurich’s highly selective public secondary schools. Geoforum, 159, 104219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104219

Landolt, L. & Bauer, I. (2023). Children’s technologies of the self within neoliberal governmentality at the educational transition to Gymnasium in Zurich. Children's Geographies, 21(6), 1201-1215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2023.2237925