Tessa Sermet

Tessa Sermet is an Associate Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Lake Forest College. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and MA/BA degrees from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her research focuses on French and Francophone science fiction, gender studies, utopian/dystopian literature, and spatial studies. She teaches courses ranging from language instruction to advanced seminars on feminist voices in Francophone literature and cinema studies.

Her scholarly work bridges literary analysis with interdisciplinary themes such as posthumanism, reproductive labor, and cinematic adaptation. Recent publications include co-editing Continuum (2024) and articles published in The French Review and ReS Futurae. She has presented at major conferences like PAMLA, MLA, and SFRA, addressing topics from Ayerdhal’s desert utopias to biopolitical frameworks in Le Goût de l’immortalité.

Her teaching portfolio includes innovative courses like Decoding the ‘Feminine’ (exploring AI/gender intersections) and Cinéma français. She has also contributed book reviews to Science Fiction Studies and Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.