Effie Rentzou (French & Italian) has been named head of Mathey College. Her four-year term will begin on July 1. As faculty head, she will work closely with college staff to build community and develop programs and activities that extend students’ learning beyond the classroom.
Rentzou’s research and teaching focus on modernism and the avant-garde. Her publications include “Concepts of the World: The French Avant-Garde and the Idea of the International, 1910-1940,” the edited volume “1913: The Year of French Modernism,” and many articles and book chapters on surrealism, the avant-garde, and poetry. She has contributed to major exhibition catalogs and curatorial projects with institutions including the Metropolitan Museum, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Guggenheim.
She is currently serving as an Old Dominion Research Professor in the Humanities Council, where she is working on the book project, “Surrealism Against Fascism,” examining the surrealist movement’s antifascist action and works in France between 1930 and the end of WWII. At Princeton, she also served as the director of the Council’s Program in European Cultural Studies from 2021 to 2025, was the Behrman Professor in the Humanities Council from 2017 to 2020, and held the Sophie and L. Edward Cotsen Faculty Fellowship from 2022 to 2025.
“Effie Rentzou is a perfect leader for Mathey, which has a long tradition of fostering the humanities at Princeton through the Edwards Collective,” said Dean of the College Michael Gordin (History), in a story on Inside Princeton. “Her commitment to embodying a deep and rich living and scholarly environment for all our students is second to none.”
