Jane Mikkelson

Jane Mikkelson is an Assistant Professor at Yale University in the School of Humanities, with a faculty appointment in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago (2019) in a joint program in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

• Specializes in literary and intellectual cultures of South Asia and the Near East
• Works with classical Persian, Urdu, Arabic, and newer projects in Russian and English
• Research bridges poetry, philosophy, and geopolitical thought in early modern global contexts

Her research explores how imaginative literature enables cross-disciplinary inquiry, focusing on planetary poetics, comparative aesthetics, and the interplay between Persianate literary traditions and European intellectual history. Recent publications analyze the Arabic concept of taste (dhawq), the geopolitical turn in Persian literary criticism, and the transcultural availability of Avicenna’s philosophy to Persian poets. She co-authored works with Timothy M. Harrison on early modern world literature, emphasizing collaborative comparison between Bidel of Delhi and Thomas Traherne.

Her courses include thought experiments, neurodiversity in world literature, and advanced seminars on classical Persian epic, lyric, and prose. She is currently working on a book titled Poetry and New Inquiry in the Early Modern Persianate World, alongside co-authored projects bridging South Asian, Near Eastern, and European cultural studies.