ENS de Lyon is pleased to announce the appointment of Vanessa Guignery as its new Vice President for International Relations, effective September 1, 2026.

Professor of contemporary British literature and postcolonial literatures at ENS de Lyon, Vanessa Guignery has been a member of the School since 2009. She holds the agrégation in English and a PhD from Sorbonne University, where she was an Associate Professor from 2000 to 2009, before joining ENS de Lyon as a Full Professor. She is affiliated with the Institut d’Histoire des Représentations et des Idées dans les Modernités (IHRIM) and has taken on several academic and institutional responsibilities throughout her career.

Her experience also has a strong international dimension. In 2011, she was a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where she regularly conducts her research. A junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2012-17) and later a CNRS delegate (2020–22) at the Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes (ITEM), she was Chair of the Department of Languages at the ENS de Lyon between 2022 and 2025. Since 2021, she has also been President of the Société d’Études Anglaises Contemporaines.

In her new role as Vice President for International Relations, Vanessa Guignery succeeds Vincent Michelot after his three-year tenure, as he enters retirement. During his tenure, he contributed to the development of the School’s international partnerships and cooperation.

With this transition, Vanessa Guignery takes on a new institutional responsibility at ENS de Lyon, bringing to the role her experience in academic research, international engagement and institutional leadership.