Holly LAVERGNE
Ms Holly LAVERGNE
Research and Teaching Assistant
CO 203
+41 22 379 78 71
E-mail
Additional Information
Research Interests
Holly Lavergne holds a BA in English and History and an MA in English, both from the University of Geneva. Her Master’s thesis, written while studying abroad at Oxford University, examined the construction of Katherine Philips’ contradictory poetic authorship in her poetry, paratextual material, and manuscript reception.
She is currently working on a PhD thesis on early modern women’s poetry under the supervision of Professor Lukas Erne. Her project focuses on the overlooked conceptual networks of remembering surrounding early modern women poets, examining the layers of agency that form and reform women’s poetic reputations. Her research interests include women’s writing, book history, manuscript studies, and reception history, particularly in literature from the medieval and early modern periods.
Alongside her research, she teaches the undergraduate seminar “Reading Medieval Texts,” a seminar which accompanies the “Medieval England” lecture taught by Professor Guillemette Bolens in the BA4 module on Medieval Literature.
Conference Papers and Publications
Holly Lavergne, “‘As Witness my Hand’: MS Rawl. poet. 173 and Collaborative Verse Miscellany Production.” Scribes and Inky Fingerprints: Collaborative and Mediated Authorship in Early Modern English Manuscripts, Leiden University, 7-9 May 2025.
Holly Lavergne, “Rhetorics of Contradiction: The Construction of Katherine Philips’ Poetic Authorship in the Paratext and Poetry of Poems (1667) and in MS Rawl. poet. 173.” MA Thesis, University of Geneva, 2024, https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:180292.
Awards and Funding
Marcel Compagnon Prize, University of Geneva, monetary prize for the best Master’s thesis in the Western Languages, Literatures, and Civilizations category, November 2024.
Exchange-Year Bursary at St. John’s College, University of Oxford, funding for a study abroad to research for the Master’s thesis, 2023-2024.
Community Service
Board Member, Association des Étudiant.e.s en Langue et Littérature Anglaises (AELLA), University of Geneva, 2021-2025.
Editorial Team Member, Noted: The English Department Journal, University of Geneva, 2021-2025.
President/Board Member, English Department’s Commission Mixte, University of Geneva, 2021-2025 (President from 2022-2023).