Alicia E. Ellis

Alicia Ellis is an interdisciplinary scholar of comparative literature, with expertise in German studies, African-American studies, and Caribbean literature. Her forthcoming book, Figuring the Female: Language and Identity in Franz Grillparzer’s Classical Dramas, offers a compelling re-reading of three of Grillparzer’s plays through the lens of contemporary feminist theory. The book is original, innovative, and pushes the boundaries of a somewhat conservative field in beneficial and necessary ways. Ellis is also expanding her research into emerging interdisciplinary fields, including Black German studies, Afro-European studies, and Caribbean literary studies, and is leading these fields in exciting and transformative new directions. Ellis earned her Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literatures and her M.A. in African-American studies from Yale University, and her B.A. in Germanic literature and women’s and gender studies from Amherst College.