Dr Rebecca Boyd

Introduction

Having grown up in the Paris region, I went through the French school system and obtained a baccalauréat littéraire before coming to the UK in 2015 to study French and Beginners’ Russian at Pembroke College, Oxford. After my undergraduate studies, I spent two years in Paris working and studying for a Masters in Comparative Literature at Sorbonne Université, before returning to Oxford in 2022 for my DPhil. I have taught French language and literature at secondary level and at several colleges, as well as for the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages.

Teaching

I teach a range of French language papers across a consortium of colleges including Magdalen. In 2026-27, I am teaching 1st-Year Summary, Grammar, Prose Translation, and Speaking, and 2nd- and 4th-Year Prose Translation, Essay in French, and Speaking. I have also taught Prelims Papers II and XII, and FHS Papers II, VIII, and XI.

Research

I recently completed a DPhil on the works of lesbian French poet Renée Vivien (1877-1909), focusing on occult and folkloric motifs in relation to dominant 19th-century discourse on gender, sexuality, and national identity. My broader research interests lie in the literary and cultural construction of queerness in France and Britain in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Publications

‘Spectral Selfhood in Sapphic Nightmares of the Belle Époque’ in Frances Clemente and Greta Colombani (ed.), Nightmares in the Long Nineteenth Century, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.

‘Renée Vivien, enfant terrible of the Belle Époque?’, Taylor Institution Library: A Bodleian Libraries Weblog (12/04/2024).