Weather Update

Due to the storm, Barnard College closed at 4pm Friday, for non-essential personnel. “Essential personnel" include staff in Facilities, Public Safety and Residence Halls.  

Friday evening and weekend classes are cancelled but events are going forward as planned unless otherwise noted. The Athena Film Festival programs are also scheduled to go forward as planned but please check http://athenafilmfestival.com/ for the latest information. 

The Barnard Library and Archives closed at 4pm Friday and will remain closed on Saturday, Feb. 9.  The Library will resume regular hours on Sunday opening at 10am.  

Please be advised that due to the conditions, certain entrances to campus may be closed.  The main gate at 117th Street & Broadway will remain open.  For further updates on college operations, please check this website, call the College Emergency Information Line 212-854-1002 or check AM radio station 1010WINS. 

3:12 PM 02/08/2013

Introducing Loren K. Wolfe, Associate in French

August 10, 2012
What is your specific area of research? What are you currently working on?
I am a scholar of late nineteenth and twentieth century French/Francophone literature.  Currently, I am finishing my dissertation, "Declining (the) Subject: Immunity and the Crisis of Masculine Selfhood in Modern France (1870-2000)." This is an interdisciplinary project examining the intersections of medical, literary and philosophical discourse around the metaphor of immunity, a word that straddles the legal-juridical and biomedical domains. Through this lens, I specifically analyze the "immuno-compromised" masculine bodies in the literary works of Emile Zola, Albert Camus, Hervé Guibert and Jean-Luc Nancy.

What are your other research/teaching interests? Any broader projects or initiatives with which you're involved in your field?
I am very interested in the ways in which medical and literary discourses inform one another, particularly around questions of gender. I have taught courses on representations of the monster in 19th-century Europe, on the quest of/for self in contemporary French literature, on ethical dilemmas stemming from the European Enlightenment, and on the concept of revolution as it relates to Paris, among others.

What is most exciting to you about joining Barnard's faculty? What are you looking forward to most about being here?
I am most excited about working with the terrific students at Barnard!

What courses will you be teaching?
I will be teaching “Elementary French” and “Intermediate French II.”

Outside of your academic life, any interests, hobbies, accomplishments of note? Is there something about you that would surprise your students or colleagues?
I am a certified yoga instructor.  Deep breathing and meditation are both useful when trying to memorize irregular verb conjugations!