Kat Haklin is a PhD candidate in French Literature at the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.  Her dissertation entitled “Espaces clos, espaces éclos: Enclosure in French Literature from Les Fleurs du Mal to Germinal” focuses on the concept of enclosure—defined as the perception of spatial surroundings that appear to close inwards—and demonstrates how this new conception of space materializes in French literature during the mid- to late-nineteenth century.  This research led her to investigate the origins of spatial disorders (claustrophobia, agoraphobia) whose first medical definitions are concurrent with or follow the publication of the works by Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, and Émile Zola that she analyzes through literary close readings.  Her research interests span a range of cultural production from poetry and prose, painting and caricature, to finally fashion and the history of dress.  Before joining the doctoral program at Johns Hopkins, she completed a BA in Art History and French at DePauw University and an MA in French Literature at Florida State University.  While at Hopkins, she spent a year conducting dissertation research at the École normale supérieure (Paris, d’Ulm) and her research has been funded by a Gilman Fellowship in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, the Dean’s Teaching Fellowship program, and the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute.