Effie Rentzou studies literature and its relation to other arts, with particular attention to the historical avant-garde movements and modernism. Her interests include poetics, the relation between image and text, social analysis of literature, politics and literature, and the internationalization of the avant-garde. After earning a BA in Classics from the University of Athens, she earned a second degree (Maîtrise) in French Literature at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, where she also completed her DEA and PhD (2002). In 2003 she was the Ted and Elaine Athanassiades Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, where she also taught from 2004-2008 as a lecturer with a joint appointment in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of French and Italian. She teaches courses on modernism, the avant-garde, surrealism, politics and culture, and poetry, and she has published widely on these topics. She is currently the President of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism.
Professor Rentzou is Director for the Program in European Cultural Studies. Read her full biography on the Department of French & Italian website.
