Academics

Lois Barr > Biographical Sketch

Lois Barr studied Spanish, French and Russian as an undergraduate at Georgetown University’s School of Languages and Linguistics with a year at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.  She earned an M.A. in Spanish at Middlebury College’s Spanish School in Vermont and Madrid.  Then she returned to her home state to the University of Kentucky where she received a doctorate in Spanish.  She taught for sixteen years at Northwestern University and came to Lake Forest College in 1995 after completing the research for a documentary, Isa: The People’s Diva, that aired on public television all over the U.S. and in festivals around the world.   Barr’s early publications dealt with Spanish realist master Benito Pérez Galdós and her two books examine Latin American Jewish culture.  Recent publications and lectures focus on Yiddish inserted into Argentine fiction.  She has chaired the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the Latin American Studies Program.   Barr likes to write, paint and bike but not at the same time.