Lionel Cuillé

Lionel Cuillé is a professor of French at Washington University in St. Louis, where he directs French ConneXions, the university’s cultural center dedicated to promoting French and Francophone cultures. His teaching and research focus on contemporary French poetry, the avant-gardes, and representations of speed at the turn of the twentieth century. He has published extensively on Francis Ponge, Blaise Cendrars, Arthur Rimbaud, and Guillaume Apollinaire, and has developed courses in literary translation, ecocriticism, and human rights.

A graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, Cuillé has taught at institutions ranging from French middle schools to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Pennsylvania, and the École Normale Supérieure. From 2012 to 2020, he was associate professor and Jane and Bruce Robert Endowed Chair in French Studies at Webster University, where he founded the Centre francophone. He was named a Knight of the Ordre des Palmes académiques in 2017 in recognition of his contributions to French education and culture.