Raisa Rexer

Assistant Professor of French

I am a native Brooklynite who joined the department of French and Italian in the Fall of 2018. I completed my Ph.D. in French after graduate work in English and in Comparative Literature, and I take a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to my research on the literature and culture of 19th century France. My interests focus on the intersection of the visual arts and literature, the early history of photography, and the history of pornography. In my current book project, I examine the early history of nude photography in France and its influence on contemporary cultural debates and literary representations of the body. The next one will look at photo-illustration of the novel in fin-de-siècle France. In addition to my academic work, I also contribute art reviews to the U.K.-based magazine Apollo.