Dr Adriana Bontea

Stipendiary Lecturer in French

After leaving Eastern Europe just before the collapse of the communism regime, I moved between countries and continents in search for a new home. I have started my academic career in the US as an Assistant Professor of French at SUNY Buffalo and moved again back to Europe in 1996, when I joined the School of European Studies at the University of Sussex. As a lecturer and later as a senior lecturer in French, I was teaching a wide variety of courses on literature and thought ranging from Homer to Montaigne, and from Descartes to Proust.


Since my appointment at Pembroke College in 2012 I have had the privilege to be able to concentrate on the Early Modern aspect of my research, by teaching topics and authors to undergraduates and graduate students, whilst continuing to publish on the legacy of the Early Modern culture on modern and contemporary literary genres and philosophy. Focusing on continuities and breakpoints between the ancient and the moderns at various moments in history is both enthralling and intellectually rewarding, because exploring the richness of our past makes us better understand our present concerns.

Dr Adriana Bontea

Stipendiary Lecturer in French

After leaving Eastern Europe just before the collapse of the communism regime, I moved between countries and continents in search for a new home. I have started my academic career in the US as an Assistant Professor of French at SUNY Buffalo and moved again back to Europe in 1996, when I joined the School of European Studies at the University of Sussex. As a lecturer and later as a senior lecturer in French, I was teaching a wide variety of courses on literature and thought ranging from Homer to Montaigne, and from Descartes to Proust.


Since my appointment at Pembroke College in 2012 I have had the privilege to be able to concentrate on the Early Modern aspect of my research, by teaching topics and authors to undergraduates and graduate students, whilst continuing to publish on the legacy of the Early Modern culture on modern and contemporary literary genres and philosophy. Focusing on continuities and breakpoints between the ancient and the moderns at various moments in history is both enthralling and intellectually rewarding, because exploring the richness of our past makes us better understand our present concerns.