Micah True

Micah True is an Associate Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta, where he also serves as Associate Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. His work focuses on early-modern French and Francophone literature, history, and intercultural contact, particularly Jesuit writings and their intersections with Indigenous cultures in colonial North America.

• Education:
  • PhD in Romance Studies, Duke University (2009)
  • MA in French Literature, Duke University
  • BA in French and Journalism, Gonzaga University

Current research examines Jesuit mission ethnography, colonial medicine, and Indigenous influence on missionary narratives. He is preparing an edition of a 17th-century pirate voyage account and a monograph on early-modern medical practices in New France.

His publications include:

• The Jesuit Relations: A Biography (2025), analyzing missionary documentation as historical artifacts
• Studies of Pierre Corneille’s Le Cid in colonial contexts (2025)
• Masters and Students (2015), on Jesuit mission ethnography
• An annotated translation of Charlevoix’s Journal of a Voyage (2019)

Micah welcomes graduate students in his research areas and receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).