Anne Le

Anne Le (she/her)’s research focuses on representations of religious conversion in twelfth- and thirteenth-century chansons de geste and romances. Her dissertation, “Changes of Heart: Conversion, Assimilation, and Fantasies of Conquest in Medieval French Romances and Chansons de Geste,” reveals how fictional converts from Islam to Latin Christianity function as experimental entities that serve to construct — and deconstruct — gender ideals and elide genealogical taboos all in service of imperialist ideologies. She highlights how conversion operates to manage markers of human difference. Her work draws upon medieval Mediterranean studies, global medieval studies, gender studies, and postcolonial studies to examine premodern discourses of gender, racialization, and community. A simple question sustains her research interests: who gets to belong and why? 

Her work is forthcoming in the journals boundary 2 and Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She has presented her research at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, the Medieval Academy of America, and the convention of the Modern Languages Association. 

In addition to research, Anne is committed to fostering inclusive and equitableclassroom environments. She has served as the Graduate Student Researcher for UCLA’s Excellence in Pedagogy and Innovative Classrooms Program, which is housed in the UCLA Humanities Division and funded by the Mellon Foundation. She has taught several courses in French language and culture in the Department of European Languages & Transcultural Studies. Furthermore, she has extensive experience guiding and mentoring first-year university students as a Teaching Fellow in the Cluster Program through the UCLA Undergraduate Education Initiatives unit. She also serves her peers as a North Campus Graduate Student Career Consultant through the UCLA Graduate Career Services.