Languages: Spanish and French

Wyatt Leaf is a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature, specializing in Hispanic and French Literature with an expertise in Mexico and France during the 19th and 20th centuries. His interests include poetics, Avant-Garde poetry and narrative, Hispanic Modernism (Modernismo), Parnassianism and Decadence.

Leaf’s dissertation, Provincial Cosmopolitans & Reactionary Bohemians, examines the paradoxes of Mexican literary modernity at the turn of the 20th century and through the Mexican Revolution (1910-20). Focusing on poets such as Salvador Díaz Mirón, José Juan Tablada, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, and Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Leaf explores how Modernist and Avant-Garde poetics deal with tensions between the modern and the anti-modern, provincialism and cosmopolitanism, revolution and reaction. By incorporating foreign writers who found their voice in Mexico, this research positions Mexico as a hub of transnational literary creativity, open to outsiders and misfits who would leave behind a legacy of innovation, cosmopolitanism and rebellion in the poetic tradition.

In his article “La Revolución y la marihuana: Perspectivas de la modernidad mexicana,” published in Colegio de México's Otros Diálogos, Leaf discusses associations between marijuana and the Mexican Revolution in Avant-Garde literary and artistic spheres of the early 20th century. He has a forthcoming article on the intersections between French novelists Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Albert Camus, to be published in Cahiers Saint-Exupéry 8 (2025). He is currently working on an article comparing narratives of disillusion in the work of Juan Rulfo and Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

Beyond research and literary criticism, Leaf has a passion for instruction, having taught both French and Spanish courses at Princeton. In 2022, he collaborated with the Nicaraguan novelist Sergio Ramírez (Visiting Professor) as an assistant in the courses Spanish Modernism and Literature and Politics in Latin America in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Leaf originally hails from Central California, where he acquired his taste for language and literature. In 2020, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in French and Iberian & Latin American Cultures from Stanford, graduating with honors and distinction.