With roots in both Virginia and Utah, Marva Barnett completed her B.A. in French and English at Westminster College, "the small, friendly college" in Salt Lake City. After completing her M.A. thesis on the theme of love in chosen works of Victor Hugo at the University of Maine at Orono, she specialized in seventeenth-century French tragicomedy for her Ph.D. work at Harvard University. Always interested in teaching as well as research, Marva accepted positions involving training and supervising graduate teaching assistants (TAs) in French at Purdue University, Indiana University, and finally the University of Virginia.

Since 1990, as founding director of the U.Va. Teaching Resource Center, she works with excellent faculty and TAs from throughout the University and is proud of receiving the Elizabeth Zintl Award for Leadership. Her current TRC projects include directing the University Teaching Fellows Program, serving on the steering committee for the Excellence in Diversity Fellows Program, administering the biennial Teaching Portfolio Workshop, and coordinating Center activities.

Marva's research interests have ranged from baroque French theater to second-language acquisition work on reading and writing, with publications in The French Review, The Modern Language Journal and Foreign Language Annals, among others. Her current research project on reflective thinking in humanities led her to accept the Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellowship at Downing College, University of Cambridge, in 2000. Particularly interested in connecting her research and teaching, Marva has been awarded the Pimsleur Award for research and the Freeman Award for pedagogy. Although her teaching most often centers on French language and composition, she is currently entranced by the depth and variety of Victor Hugo's literary and political writings, as well as by his drawings and paintings.