Eric Robertson

Eric Robertson is a Professor of Modern French Literary and Visual Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London. He holds affiliations with the Centre for Visual Cultures and the Humanities and Arts Research Institute. His career includes roles as Director of French and lecturer at Aberdeen University before joining Royal Holloway. Robertson specializes in avant-garde movements like Dada, Surrealism, and Cubism, with a focus on intersections between poetry and visual art.

Education: MA and PhD in French and German from the University of Aberdeen, with a brief stint as a translator at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He has examined PhDs at multiple institutions, including Oxford and Sorbonne-Université.

Research interests span 20th- and 21st-century French poetry, translingual writers (e.g., René Schickele), and exhibitions co-curated with institutions like the Kröller-Müller Museum and Turner Contemporary. Key publications include Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor (2007 R.H. Gapper Prize winner) and Blaise Cendrars: The Invention of Life (2022).

Teaching focuses on French culture, cinema, and visual arts, including courses like Text and Image in France from Cubism to the Present. He mentors postgraduates exploring interdisciplinary modernist studies and avant-garde legacies.

Awards include the Arp International Research Fellowship (2015) and the R.H. Gapper Book Prize (2007). He actively contributes to international exhibitions, such as the Arp: The Poetry of Forms tour (2017-18), and collaborates with galleries like Luxembourg + Co and Hauser & Wirth.