Branka Arsić is the Charles and Lynn Zhang Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
Arsić was born in Serbia and received her PhD from the University of Belgrade.
[4][5] Her scholarship specializes in the literature of the 19th century Americas and its scientific, philosophical and religious contexts.
[6][7] She was praised for "sharing insights that enable students to see canonical literature in a new light, helping them connect those works to contemporary issues and experiences.
"[3] Her book on Henry David Thoreau, Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau, won the MLA's James Russell Lowell prize for the outstanding book of 2016.