A Legacy of Care, Curiosity and Connecting: A Personal Tribute to Prof. Barbara Wright

ABSTRACT

This personal tribute focuses on Barbara Wright's legacy to academia, highlighting her integrity and kindness. It discusses the importance of care and respect, as well as connection and exchange, as exemplified by Barbara. The tribute argues that a deep curiosity about people and about the past characterized Barbara's life and work. It draws on memories from Barbara's friends and the author's own personal relationship to show how, in both big and small ways, Barbara shaped academia and its people. It highlights how modern-day universities could benefit from taking a closer look at Barbara's exceptional professional and personal legacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Care
• respect
• curiosity
• connection
• exchange

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claire Moran

Claire Moran is Reader in French at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research is broadly based on nineteenth-century France and Belgium and many of her publications are in this area. Most recently (2022), she has published an edited volume with Bloomsbury (Domestic Space in France and Belgium), as well as two co-edited special issues of Dix-Neuf (2019; 2022) on Domestic and Interior Space in Nineteenth-Century Belgium and on Intimacy. She is currently working on a monograph on Berthe Morisot, contracted with Routledge, called Morisot’s Modernism and Impressionist Art, for which she was awarded the 2021 Society of French Studies Research Prize Fellowship.