Catriona Jane Seth, FBA (born 30 August 1964) is a British scholar of French literature and the history of ideas. Since 2015, she has been Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

Seth was born on 30 August 1964 in Worsthorne, Lancashire, England.^[1] She holds Irish and British citizenship.^[2] She was brought up in England, Scotland, Switzerland, Belgium, and South America.^[3][4] She was educated at Colegio Francia in Caracas, Venezuela, at Lycée Sainte-Croix in Fribourg, Switzerland, and at Lycée français de Belgique in Belgium.^[1]

Seth studied law and modern languages (French and Spanish) at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1986: as per tradition, her BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Oxon) in 2001.^[1][5][6] She then studied at Paris-Sorbonne University, completing a Maîtrise degree in 1987, a Diplôme d'études approfondies (DEA) in 1988, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1995.^[1][3][7] Her doctoral thesis was on Évariste de Parny, the 18th-century French poet,^[6] and was supervised by Sylvain Menant.^[7]

Seth spent most of her academic career teaching in France. She completed the Agrégation in 1995, and the Habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR) in 2004.^[1] From 1995 to 2000, she was a Professeur agrégé at the Académie de Rouen.^[5] From 2000 to 2006, she was a tenured lecturer in 18th-century French literature at the University of Rouen.^[5] From 2006, she was Professor of 18th-century French literature at Nancy 2 University.^[1] When Nancy 2 University was merged with other universities to become the University of Lorraine, she continued her teaching at the new institution.^[1] Between 2013 and 2014, she was also a World Leading Researcher at Queen's University, Belfast.^[5] She has been a visiting professor at Indiana University (Bloomington, USA), at the Université de Gafsa (Tunisia) and at the University of Augsburg (Germany);.^[8][9]. She has been a Guest Researcher at the University of Bergamo (Italy), a Bogliasco Foundation Fellow, a Chawton House Fellow and was Senior Anniversary Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) of the University of Edinburgh in 2023.^[10]

On 1 October 2015, she was appointed Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford.^[11] At the same time, she was elected a University Academic Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.^[5][11]

In October 2012, Seth gave the fifth annual Burgerhartlezing (Burgerhart Lecture) under the title Nobody's Children? Foundlings, Identity and Individual Rights in the Enlightenment.^[12] In March 2014, she gave the John Rule Memorial Lecture at the University of Southampton.^[13]

In July 2017, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.^[14][15] She was appointed an associate member of the Académie Royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique in June 2018.^[16]

In July 2018, Seth was awarded an honorary doctorate "for services to education" by Queen's University Belfast.^[17]

In 2019, Seth was elected a Fellow of the Academia Europaea.^[18]

• Martine Bercot; Michel Collot; Catriona Seth, eds. (2000). Anthologie de la poésie française: XVIIIe–XXe siècles (in French). Paris: Gallimard. ISBN 978-2070115990.
• Michel Delon; Catriona Seth (2004). Sade en toutes lettres (in French). Desjonquères. ISBN 978-2843210679.
• Catriona Seth (2005). André Chénier: le miracle du siècle (in French). Paris: Presses Paris Sorbonne. ISBN 978-2840504184.
• Catriona Seth (2006). Marie-Antoinette: Anthologie et dictionnaire (in French). Paris: Laffont.
• Catriona Seth (2008). Les Rois aussi en mouraient. Les Lumières en lutte contre la petite vérole (in French). Paris: Desjonquères.
• Robert Kahn; Catriona Seth (2010). La Retraduction (in French). Mont-Saint-Aignan: Publications de l'Université de Rouen et du Havre. ISBN 978-2877758017.
• Catriona Seth; Eric Wauters (2010). Autour de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: les écrits et les hommes des Lumières à l'Empire (in French). Mont-Saint-Aignan: Publications de l'Université de Rouen et du Havre. ISBN 978-2877755047.
• Catriona Seth ed. (2011). Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (in French). Paris: Gallimard, Bibl. de la Pléiade.
• Catriona Seth (2013). La Fabrique de l'intime (in French). Éditions Robert Laffont. ISBN 978-2221135297.
• Catriona Seth (2014). Évariste Parny (1753-1814): Créole, révolutionnaire, académicien (in French). Paris: Hermann.
• Rotraud von Kulessa; Catriona Seth, eds. (2017). L'idée de l'Europe: au Siècle des Lumières (in French). Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. ISBN 978-1783743469.
• Catriona Seth; Rotraud von Kulessa, eds. (2017). The Idea of Europe: Enlightenment Perspectives. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. ISBN 978-1783743810.
• Catriona Seth; Rotraud von Kulessa, eds. (2017). Die Europaidee im Zeitalter der Aufklärung. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. ISBN 978-1783744015.
• Madame de Staël; Catriona Seth; Valérie Cossy, eds. (2017). Œuvres (in French). Paris: Gallimard. ISBN 978-2070143900.
• Marie-Antoinette; Catriona Seth, eds. (2019). Lettres inédites (in French). Paris: Albin Michel. ISBN 978-2226445285.