Robert Pogue Harrison

He is also the creator and host of the long-running literary podcast Entitled Opinions (About Life and Literature). He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2007. In October 2014, he was decorated with the title of Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

The recorded working language is English, Italian and French. The field of work recorded is Italian studies and literary studies. Places of work recorded in the authority are Stanford. Employment is recorded with Stanford University. Distinctions recorded are Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

• Birthplace — İzmir, Turkey • Education — * American Overseas School of Rome • Santa Clara University • Cornell University • Workplaces — Stanford University

Harrison was born in İzmir, Turkey, where he lived until the age of twelve. Following the death of his American father, Harrison moved with his family to Rome, the native city of his Italian mother. He attended the Overseas School of Rome, an international school where he studied under teachers from diverse backgrounds, including the Irish poet Desmond O’Grady. Harrison has often credited this period, particularly the influence of his English teachers in the early 1970s, with shaping his literary sensibilities. He went on to pursue higher education in the United States, earning a bachelor’s degree in Humanities from Santa Clara University in 1976. After a period of exploration, he entered graduate school at Cornell University, where he completed a doctorate in Romance Studies in 1984 with a dissertation on Dante’s Vita Nuova. In 1985, he accepted a visiting assistant professorship in the Department of French and Italian at Stanford. In 1986, he joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He was granted tenure in 1992, and was promoted to full professor in 1995. In 1997, Stanford offered him the Rosina Pierotti Chair. In 2002, he was named chair of the Department of French and Italian, which he continued to be until 2010. In September 2014, he once again became chair of the department. He retired in 2024 and is now professor emeritus.

Through his podcast and public lectures, including the 2024 Eugene Lunn Memorial Lecture at UC Davis and the 2023 Clark Lectures at Trinity College, Harrison engages with global audiences on topics ranging from poetry and philosophy to artificial intelligence, the ecological crisis, and mindfulness. He emphasizes the importance of imagination, metaphor, and literary rediscovery in the humanities, while critically assessing the effects of technology, social media, and AI on human creativity, relational experience, and education. Harrison is also a musician and a public intellectual whose work bridges scholarship and accessible cultural discourse, drawing on his Mediterranean upbringing, philosophical influences such as Heidegger and Camus, and a lifelong engagement with literature, nature, and the ethical dimensions of contemporary life.

• Show Name — Entitled Opinions • Format — literary talk show • Runtime — 60 minutes • Country — United States • Language — English • Home Station — KZSU • Starring — Robert Harrison • Producer — Vittoria Mollo • Record Location — Stanford, California • First Aired — 2005 9 14 • Last Aired — 2019 6 21 • Website — https: entitledopinions.stanford.edu/ • Podcast — iTunes Entitled Opinions is a literary talk show hosted by Robert P. Harrison. The show was started in 2005 and it is available as a podcast. Topics range broadly on issues related to literature, ideas, and lived experience. Shows are typically a one-on-one conversation with a special guest about select topics or authors about which he or she is especially entitled to an opinion. Guests have included Werner Herzog, Marilynne Robinson, Richard Rorty, and Paul R. Ehrlich, among others. The program airs from the studios of KZSU, 90.1 FM, Stanford.