DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH AND ITALIAN

Louise Caroline Barbosa received her B.A. from Eastern Michigan University’s Honors College with a double major in English and French. She then continued her studies at The University of Chicago, where she received a Masters in the Humanities from the Two-Year Language Option Program. Her thesis examined Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris, in which she studied how both the church of Notre Dame and the female protagonist of La Esmeralda were victims of unidimensional interpretations that simplified and deformed their characters.  

Prior to joining Northwestern, she spent a year teaching English in Dinard, France, which is in her favorite region of Bretagne. Her current research is at the intersection of gender studies, 17th century French literature, fairy tales, and female narratives.