Dr. Heather Kirk

Dr. Heather Kirk

Job Title:

 Assistant Professor, French

Type:

 Full-Time Faculty

Email:

 hkirk4@uwo.ca

Phone:

 519.432.8353 x28260

Office:

 Ursuline Hall 346

Academic Background

  • PhD and MA, French Studies, Western University
  • Hons B.A., French Language and Literature, Brescia University College

Previous Work Experience

  • Huron University College, Part-Time Instructor 
  • King’s University College, Part-Time Instructor 
  • Western University, Instructor (Limited Term) 
  • Collège Boréal, Instructor (Adult FSL) 
  • Huron University College Writing Centre, Writing Assistant 

Representative Publications

As Author 

  • Kirk, Heather. “Le suicide comme revendication d’indépendance dans La Vraye Didon de Boisrobert”. Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature XLII.81. June 2015. 
    Kirk, Heather. “Brutalité, vengeance et repentance : le viol dans l’œuvre d’Alexandre Hardy”. Le viol et le ravissement à la Renaissance. Le Verger 4. June 2013. 
    Book Review 
    Kirk, Heather. “The Unbridled Tongue: Babble and Gossip in Renaissance France by Emily Butterworth (review)”. French Forum, vol. 43 no. 2, 2018, pp. 347-349. 

As Editor 

  • Kirk, Heather and Jessy Neau, eds. “Introduction.” L’Émotion et la danse/Emotion and Dance. Le monde français du XVIIIe siècle2.1 (Dec. 2017): 1-5. 

Representative Conferences

  • “‘Notre sexe est fort vindicatif’ : les femmes tragiques sous la plume de Tristan L’Hermite”, Innovation, 37th Annual Conference of the Société d’études pluridisciplinaires du XVIIe siècle français (SE-17). University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte (NC), 14-16 October 2019. 
  • “La rhétorique du désenchantement chez Tristan L’Hermite”, Enchantement et désillusion en France au XVIIe siècle, 49th Annual Congress of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, Salt Lake City, UT (Hosted by Brigham Young University), 16-19 May, 2019.
  • “La Querelle du Cid et la critique institutionnalisée”, L’honnêteté au Grand Siècle: belles manières et Belles Lettres, 48th Annual Congress of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Università del Salento, Lecce (Italy), 27-30 June 2018.  
  • “Lessons from the Writing Centre: Essay Dossiers in French Literature”, Interrupting Pedagogies? Campuses Connected: The Affiliate Teaching and Learning Conference. King’s University College, London (ON), 22 February 2018.  
  • “Exemple et contre-exemple de la vertu féminine sous la plume de Tristan L’Hermite : Mariane et Salomé”, Passages, 35th Annual Conference of the Société d’études pluridisciplinaires du XVIIe siècle français (SE-17). Mills College, Oakland (CA) and Stanford University, Palo Alto (CA), 2-4 November 2017.  
  • “La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers de Charles de l’Espine (1614) : une recréation théâtrale de l’épisode ovidien”, Création, recréation, et récréation : pré-modernité et post-modernité, 46th Annual Congress of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Rollins College, Orlando (FL), 1-3 June 2016.  
  • “‘L’échafaud mortel’ et la mélancolie, ou le théâtre de la cruauté du premier XVIIe siècle: le cas de Lucrèce, ou l’adultère puny d’Alexandre Hardy”, In the Shadow of the Sun King, 34th Annual Conference of the Société d’études pluridisciplinaires du XVIIe siècle français (SE-17). Rutgers University, New Brunswick (NJ), 5-7 November 2015. 

Areas of Teaching

  • French Literature (Introduction to Literature, Renaissance, 17th-Century, 19th-Century, 20th-Century, and Franco-Canadian Literatures) 
  • French Culture (History, Art, Politics) 
  • French Language 
  • French-English/English-French Translation 

Research Specialization(s)

Seventeenth Century French literature, specifically: 

  • Renaissance and Pre-Academic theatre (1570-1640) 
  • Tragedy and tragicomedy 
  • Authorship, authors, copyright, publication 
  • Polemics, quarrels, rumour, and gossip 

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 

  • Writing self-efficacy and anxiety 
  • Publication 

Awards and Recognition 

  • Fellowship at the Mellon Summer Institute of French Palaeography, Newberry Library (2021) 
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant (2019-2021) 
  • ALT Centre Faculty Scholar (2019-2020) 

Other Relevant Information 

  • Founding Editor, Scholaris (SoTL journal) 
  • President (2019-2022) of the Société ontarienne de chercheurs en Ancien Régime (SOCAR) 
  • Member-at-Large, SE17