Graduate Student in French
Kellie Giordano is a fifth-year PhD candidate in French Literature at Boston University, specializing in the cultural and medical histories of eating disorders in nineteenth-century French literature. Her dissertation, “Hunger Pains: Emptiness and Eating Disorders in Nineteenth-Century French Literature,” explores how self-starvation and bodily control function as forms of embodied discourse shaped by gendered expectations, medical narratives, and cultural ideals of perfection. Through the works of Stendhal, Sand, Flaubert, Zola, and Rachilde, she analyzes how representations of food refusal illuminate broader questions of agency, power, and the regulation of the bodies during the apogée of hysteria. Kellie’s work bridges literary scholarship and contemporary mental health discourse, contributing a medical humanities perspective on how historical narratives continue to shape modern understandings of eating disorders, control, and treatment. Before joining the Department of Romance Studies at BU, she earned a BA in French and History from UNC Charlotte, as well as an MA in French Literature.