Branka Arsić is the Charles and Lynn Zhang Professor of English and Comparative Literature at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Biography

Arsić was born in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

and received her PhD from the University of Belgrade. She taught at Central European University in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

and the State University of New York at Albany before joining the Columbia University faculty in 2012. She also taught at the Center for Women's Studies in Belgrade. Her scholarship specializes in the literature of the 19th century Americas and its scientific, philosophical and religious contexts. She was praised for "sharing insights that enable students to see canonical literature in a new light, helping them connect those works to contemporary issues and experiences." Her book on

Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...

, ''Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau,'' won the MLA's

James Russell Lowell prize The James Russell Lowell Prize is an annual prize given to an outstanding scholarly book by the Modern Language Association. Background The prize is presented for a book that is an outstanding literary or linguistic study, a critical edition of ...

for the outstanding book of 2016. She was named a Great Immigrant by

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

in 2018. She received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 2019 in the field of American literature. Arsić was a visiting professor at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. She is married to Brown professor David Wills.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arsić, Branka Living people Serbian academics University of Belgrade alumni Columbia University faculty Academic staff of Central European University University at Albany, SUNY faculty Comparative literature academics Brown University faculty Serbian emigrants to the United States Year of birth missing (living people)