Dr. Anne Lise François

Biography

Anne-Lise François joined the Departments of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley as an assistant professor in 1999, after receiving her doctorate in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. Her teaching and research focuses primarily on 19th-century British, American, and European (French and German) fiction and poetry, while also exploring excursions into the 17th, 18th, and early 20th centuries. She has taught courses on modern British and American literary history, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, and has conducted graduate seminars in Comparative Literature. Her current teaching concentrates on the convergence of literary and environmental studies, addressing various contemporary issues such as food politics, farming debates, and climate change. François's notable work includes her book 'Open Secrets: Literature Uncounted Experience,' published by Stanford University Press in December 2007, which won the René Wellek Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association in 2010. Her current research examines ethos in literature, including figures in pastoral worldliness and provisionality, engaging with authors such as Jane Austen and William Wordsworth.

Research Interests