Jessica Tanner

Jessica Tanner is an Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor for French at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in 19th-century French literature and critical theory. Her research focuses on intersections of space, gender, environment, and climate within French novels. She holds a Ph.D. (2013) and earlier degrees from Harvard University.

Key research areas include naturalism, biopolitics, and literary interpretations of climate change. Her book Mapping Prostitution: Sex, Space, and the Novel in 19th-Century Paris explores spatial dynamics of prostitution in literature, while her current project Weathering Modernity: The Novel Climates of Nineteenth-Century France examines climate fiction precedents. She co-edited a special issue on Zola and Science and has presented at venues including NYU's La Maison Française.

• Awards: Lawrence R. Schehr Memorial Award (2015), Naomi Schor Memorial Award (2011)
• Teaching: Courses include Climate of Modernity, Sex, Philosophy, and Politics, and French Civilization II
• Lab/Initiatives: Convenes the Carolina Seminar on The Anthropocene, Humanities, and Social Sciences