Lisa M. Gasbarrone
Professional Biography
I have been teaching since my undergraduate days. While at Bowdoin, I received a grant from the Ford Foundation to serve as an undergraduate teaching assistant. In France, I served as an assistante d'anglais in a French lycée, and while in Paris with a French government scholarship, I taught English for students at the École normale de Sèvres. As a graduate student, I taught French language courses at Princeton and was a preceptor for a large, team-taught lecture course in comparative literature. I have taught in both college and university settings.
What I love about teaching at a small liberal arts college is the range of courses I have been able to offer over the course of my career. In addition to courses in French language and French/Francophone literatures and cultures, I have taught in Women and Gender Studies and in the International Studies program. I have also taught a number of first-year seminars, as well as courses in our Foundations program (one with a service learning component). My teaching reflects my interests in the French Enlightenment, Quebec, and Victor Hugo, as well as a broader interest in storytelling, folk tales, and fairy tales.
I have served in various administrative roles at the college - department chair, chair of Women's Studies, and Director of International Studies. I am currently Director of International Studies.
Education
I graduated from Bowdoin College (1977) summa cum laude with a degree in Romance Languages. I spent my junior year studying abroad in Paris. I received my MA (1980) and PhD (1984) from Princeton University , where I was awarded a bourse du gouvernement français for a year's study at the Ecole normale supérieure in Paris. While completing my doctoral dissertation, I accepted a visiting appointment at Tulane University in New Orleans. I taught at Tulane for four years before coming to Franklin & Marshall College in 1986.
Research Interests
My research interests are eclectic. Since leaving graduate school, I have published journal articles, essays, and translations on a variety of topics including Enlightenment authors (Rousseau and Diderot), French feminism and literary theory (Cixous, Bakhtin), and a collection of original translations on music and esthetics in 18th-century France. My most recent publications include articles on nineteenth-century Quebec and also on Victor Hugo. My most recent article, forthcoming in Quebec Studies, is entitled "Love, Loss, and the Sacred in Maria Chapdelaine."
Publications
Recent publications:
"Love, Loss, and the Sacred in Maria Chapdelaine. Forthcoming in Quebec Studies.
“Restoring the Sacred in Les Misérables.” The Journal of Religion and Literature 40.2 (Summer 2008), pp. 1-24.
