Undergraduate and postgraduate education and work experience

• Since 2001: Professor at the Institute for Integration and Participation at the FHNW School of Social Work, previously FHSO

Education

• 2011: PhD from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Zurich, Institute of Education (summa cum laude)
• 2002-2003: Continuous education in university teaching, University of Bern
• 1984-1992: Master of Arts in Social Work/Social Pedagogy, Sociology and Ethnology at the University of Freiburg i.Ue. and Dipl. Social Work (summa cum laude)
• 1978-1982: Studied social anthropology at the Universidad Austral de Chile UACH (BA in Philosophy and Social Sciences, specialising in social anthropology)

Research and guest visit

• Autumn/winter 2013/2014: Visiting Professor at the Universidad Libre de Costa Rica (ULICORI), Escuela de Trabajo Social

Main focus

Maritza Le Breton has been engaged in gender, difference or diversity and migration research for many years. Her work focuses on gender, migration and educational sociological issues, in particular on the causes and mechanisms of gender inequality in the global context, taking the example of trafficking of women and sex work, as well as the construction of difference in the university context due to migration, gender and other structural categories.

Maritza Le Breton worked in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Daniel Gredig From 2012 to 2015 on the project "Predictors of HIV-protective behaviours in adolescents and young adults in Costa Rica - a mixed methods approach to contextualise and test a comprehensive explanatory model of condom use in a Central American context", in the context of an international research cooperation with the Universidad Libre de Costa Rica ULICORI, Escuela de Trabajo Social.  It was sponsored by the KFH Development Cooperation and other parties.

She is co-initiator of the FHNW's comprehensive series of events on "Gender and Migration in the Higher Education Context" and has been responsible for its conception and implementation since 2015, with Dr. Susanne Burren and Prof. Dr. Brigitte Liebig. She has also organised various specialist conferences, e.g. "Domestic violence" (2014, in cooperation with the “Frauenhaus” (women’s refuge) in Aargau-Solothurn, and "Sex work - historical and current perspectives, theoretical approaches and courses of action" (2018, in cooperation with ProKoRe, Switzerland, a network for the defence of the rights of sex workers).

She is joint head of the modules BA108 "Introduction to social and evaluation research", BA115 "Bachelor’s thesis" and MA10 "Master’s thesis". She teaches history and theories of social work, migration studies and gender theories, scientific work and qualitative methods of social research. She supports student work such as theoretical papers, bachelor’s and master’s theses, dissertations, and project and research workshops. She is a member of the Admission Committee of the Master of Social Work programme with a focus on social innovation.

Publications and projects