Romance Studies Mourns Loss of Carrie O’Connor
Carrie O’Connor, lecturer in French at BU Romance Studies, died Monday night in a tragic accident involving the elevator in her apartment building. Carrie joined Romance Studies as a full-time lecturer for the fall 2019 semester, having taught for us on a part-time basis for several years before that.
Carrie taught a wide range of courses over the course of her career, including French language, French for Business, Conversational French, French literature in translation, and French culture through gastronomy. In addition to BU, she also taught at LSU, MIT, Northeastern University, and Bentley University.
Carrie held a BA in French and a BS in Accounting and Information Systems from Virginia Tech and an MA in French from Middlebury College. She earned her doctorate at Louisiana State University (LSU), focusing on nineteenth-century French literature. Her dissertation, exploring literary adaptations of Ovid’s Pygmalion myth from the late eighteenth- through late nineteenth-centuries, capped her degree.
Carrie will be greatly missed by the Romance Studies community. Kate Lakin-Schultz, overall coordinator of the French language program, said of Carrie:
“Carrie O’Connor was a beloved colleague and friend, first as part-time lecturer and then as a full time faculty member beginning last fall. She was the kind of colleague that you could trust so deeply and she made ours jobs easier and more enjoyable with her steady presence and collaboration. She was incredibly professional, generous with her time and ideas, smart, stalwart, kind and funny. She was such a bright light among us and we are heartbroken that her time here was cut so very short. We were honored and grateful that she decided to make BU her professional home and we, and the students she cared so much about, are better for the time she spent with us.”
Additional information can be found in this BU Today story. Condolence notes can be sent to rstudies@bu.edu.
For students, faculty, and staff, counseling support is available through the following resources:
• Marsh Chapel chaplains, 617-353-3560.
• Behavioral Medicine providers at Student Health Services, 617-353-3569.
• Crisis counselors at SARP, 617-353-SARP (7277).
• Counseling is also available for faculty and staff through the Faculty & Staff Assistance office, 617-353-5381.
• The Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, 617-353-9610.