Published Work

• Please visit my BU expert webpage: Publications | Dr. Dominique Hétu
• and my professional website: www.dominiquehetu.ca

 Dr. Dominique Hétu (she/her) is Associate Professor and Co-Chair in the Department of Francophone Studies and Languages. Her research sits at the intersection of feminist ethics and comparative literary studies, with a particular focus on contemporary Francophone literature in Québec and Canada. She examines how narratives portray care, relationality, and ordinary ethical dilemmas, highlighting the gendered and relational dimensions of labour, vulnerability, and social expectation. By exploring women’s experiences and intersubjectivities in literature, Dr. Hétu interrogates how societal norms shape both autonomy and dependence, offering nuanced perspectives on the ethics of care and the politics of the ordinary, critical for thinking through minoritized and vulnerable experiences. She is currently finalizing a monograph exploring the transformative and damaging manifestations of care in contemporary Québec literature (to be published by Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2026). She is also the lead editor for the collection Living and Learning with Feminist Ethics, Literature, and Art (U of Alberta Press, 2024), contributing to research-creation, transnational feminist discourse, and feminist pedagogy. Her first poetry collection, Il n’y aura pas de safety word (Hurlantes, March 2025), addresses issues of fat phobia and weight stigma. Across her scholarship, Dr. Hétu foregrounds underrepresented voices and the moral complexities of women’s and other marginalized lives, advancing critical conversations in literary studies, gender studies, and Francophone cultural analysis.

Some intellectual influences

A broad range of intellectual influences spanning feminist ethics, literary studies, and gendered social critique informs Dr. Hétu’s scholarship. Drawing on thinkers such as Naima Hamrouni and Sandra Laugier, she interrogates the intersections of care, vulnerability, and social justice; Veena Das and Christina Sharpe inspire her attention to the moral and ethical dimensions of ordinary life, particularly in contexts of marginalization; while Christine Delphy and Premilla Nadasen shape her analyses of gendered and precarious labour, social organization, and histories of resistance. These influences converge in her work on contemporary Francophone literature, where she explores gendered subjectivities, relational ethics, and the politics of the ordinary, amplifying underrepresented voices and advancing critical conversations at the crossroads of feminist pedagogy, transnational feminist discourse, and literary inquiry.

Pedagogy

Students who succeed in her classes engage actively with the material, connect it thoughtfully to their own experiences and other courses, and approach learning with curiosity and openness to diverse perspectives, particularly within Francophone literary and cultural contexts and in the development of second-language skills. They participate respectfully in discussions that consider gendered, racial, embodied, and class-based dimensions across historical periods, geographic spaces, and literary forms, reflecting the critical, intersectional, and interdisciplinary approaches that shape the curriculum of the Department of Francophone Studies and Language and the program of Gender and Women’s Studies.