Alicia Ellis

Alicia Ellis is an Associate Professor of German and Chair of the German and Russian Department at Colby College. She holds a B.A. from Amherst College in German Literature and Women’s and Gender Studies, and M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures from Yale University, alongside an M.A. in African American Studies. Her research focuses on German literature of the long 19th century, Black Germany, and intersections of race, gender, and cultural studies. She is a former Junior Fellow at the Max Planck/Humboldt Research Project and serves on editorial boards for The German Quarterly and Spektrum.

Education:

• B.A., Amherst College (German Literature & Women’s and Gender Studies)
• M.A., Yale University (African American Studies)
• M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., Yale University (Germanic Languages and Literatures)

Research & Interests: Ellis specializes in German literature, Black European Studies, and life writing. She has written on figures like Franz Grillparzer, Albert Camus, and Christa Wolf, and explores themes such as identity, memory, and speculative fiction. Her 2021 monograph Language and Identity in Franz Grillparzer’s Classical Dramas: Figuring the Female highlights gender dynamics in classical German drama.

Affiliations: Ellis is a member of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies (IHGMS) faculty seminar on life writing and serves as vice-chair of the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association. She also represents Germanistik and Cultural Studies on the German Studies Association’s executive board.