Marilou Poliquin is a first-year DPhil student at Merton College. She holds a Master of Library and Information Studies from McGill University (2021) and a BA in Communications and Art History from the University of Quebec in Montreal. 

Marilou’s project explores Franco-British literary exchange during the Romantic period by looking at the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland. Focusing on the publisher’s correspondence with influential women writers and translators such as Germaine de Staël, Louise Swanton Belloc, and Charlotte Waldie Eaton, the research investigates how their collaboration shaped the dissemination of French literature in Britain and contributed to cultural mediation. 

This collaborative doctoral partnership with the National Library of Scotland (NLS) is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the OOC-DTP programme. 

Having previously worked in libraries, Marilou is also interested in improving access to foreign language archives and looks forward to working closely with the National Library of Scotland to explore how digital humanities methods can open up new ways of engaging with the collection.