Sonya Stephens

Sonya Stephens is the current president of the American University of Paris and former president of Mount Holyoke College. She is the author of Baudelaire's Prose Poems: The Practice and Politics of Irony as well as the editor of A History of Women's Writing in France and Translation and the Arts in Modern France.

Education Stephens studied at New Hall, a college for women at the University of Cambridge that is now known as Murray Edwards College, where she received her B.A. in modern and medieval languages. She holds a master's degree in French studies from the Université de Montréal and a doctorate in French from the University of Cambridge. She joined Mount Holyoke College in 2013 as dean of faculty and vice president for academic affairs. She became acting president in July 2016, following the resignation of Lynn Pasquerella. Stephens was officially named president on April 23, 2018. Beverly Daniel Tatum succeeded her as interim president, beginning in July 2022.

Selected works