Barbara Will specializes in twentieth- and twenty-first century literature, culture, and history, with a comparative emphasis upon Anglo-American and French modernism, literary theory, and cultural studies. Author of numerous books, articles, and opinion pieces, her work has been featured and reviewed in publications like The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Guardian, and has been supported by research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the Camargo Foundation, and others.

As an administrator, Barbara has been chair of the Presidential Steering Committee for Moving Dartmouth Forward, Associate Dean for the Arts and Humanities, and, since September 1, 2021, is the Vice Provost for Academic and International Affairs. Most recently, Professor Will was elected as a member of the Board of the University of the Arctic.