Françoise Lionnet


Françoise Lionnet serves as acting chair of the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University, where she is professor of Romance languages and literatures, comparative literature, and African and African American studies. She is distinguished research professor of comparative literature and French and Francophone studies at UCLA, and a research associate of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She served as director of the and Program Co-Director of .
She is a leading scholar in Francophone and comparative literary studies, and has published groundbreaking work in the fields of feminist literature, postcolonial studies, autobiography, and African, African-American, Caribbean and Mascarene Island studies. She is the former president of the ACLA.

Early life

Lionnet was born in Mauritius, to a Franco-Mauritian and Seychellois family. She grew up speaking French and Creole, and learned English at the age of 4. This, in addition to the island's multicultural society and her diverse educational experience, has informed her research interests and comparatist approach throughout her career. Educated in Mauritius, Reunion Island, France, England, Germany, and the US, she received her PhD from the University of Michigan and was a postdoctoral fellow at the .

Career

Prior to joining Harvard in 2015, Lionnet taught at UCLA, where she chaired the French Department. She held the Pierce Miller Professorship in Literary Studies at Northwestern University until 1998. Her numerous honors include visiting and special professorships at Duke University, University of Nottingham, UK, and the EHESS in Paris. In 2015, she was the Mary Cornille Distinguished Visiting Professor, Newhouse Humanities Center, at Wellesley College.
Her most recent books include ' and ', which have been recognized in an article on . In 2018, she published Evariste Parny: Selected Poetry and Prose, on the Creole abolitionist poet from Reunion Island.
She has edited and co-edited volumes for literary journals including,,,,, and . In addition to editing, Lionnet has been a regular contributor to these and many other scholarly journals throughout her career.

Works

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Selected awards