Search UT

Education

2000 University of California at Berkeley, B.A.
2004 New York University, M.A.
2006 University of California at Davis, M.A.
2011 University of California at Davis, Ph.D.

Courses Taught

AWR 201 Writing and Research
LIT 126 Lit and Film Classics
LIT 209 Am Lit Survey II
Lit 425 Senior Seminar

Career Specialties

Lauro's areas of expertise are located in postcolonial literature, especially of the Caribbean, American literature and film. Though she is most known for her scholarship on the myth of the zombie, she is also interested in narratives of disability, and modern-day narratives of slavery and revolt, which she studies in a range of media.

In addition to her other duties, Lauro provides leadership for the humanities, arts and languages areas of the Spartan Studies general education program and can be reached at SSD-Humanities@ut.edu.

Professional and Community Activities

Lauro's first book, The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion, and Living Death (2015) showcases her expertise in both postcolonial literature of the Western hemisphere and horror film. She followed this with the publication of an edited volume, Zombie Theory: A Reader (2018), and the slim book Kill the Overseer! The Gamification of Slave Revolt (2020). Lauro enjoys collaborative scholarship, and she has edited collections both for book publication and for special issues of journals. She has also done some writing for magazines and online outlets, most recently for Art Papers and Monument Lab Bulletin.

Honors and Awards

2015 Tyler Rigg award for the year’s best essay in the international journal Disability Studies Quarterly. Lauro was granted a Fulbright-Hays fellowship in 2019 and 2022 from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.