Ann Margaret Jefferson, FBA (born 3 November 1949) is a British scholar of French literature. She was a fellow and tutor in French at New College, Oxford, from 1987 to 2015, and professor of French at the University of Oxford from 2006 to 2015.

Jefferson was born on 3 November 1949 to Antony and Eirlys Jefferson.^[1] She studied at St Anne's College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1971: as per tradition, her BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts (MA) degree.^[1][2] She then moved to Wolfson College, Oxford, where she undertook postgraduate research and she completed her Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1976.^[1]

From 1978 to 1982, Jefferson was a junior research fellow at St John's College, Oxford.^[1][3] Then, from 1982 to 1987, she was a college lecturer at St John's College.^[1] In 1987, she was elected a fellow of New College, Oxford and appointed a college tutor in French.^[3][4] From 1987 to 2006, she was also a lecturer in French in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages of the University of Oxford.^[2][4] In 2006, she was appointed professor of French literature by the University of Oxford.^[1][4] In 2015, she retired from full-time academia and was appointed an emeritus fellow of New College.^[1][3]

Outside of Oxford, Jefferson has held a number of visiting scholar appointments. In 2006, she was a visiting professor at Columbia University in the United States.^[1] In 2008, she was a visiting professor at the Sorbonne in Parish, France.^[1][3] From February 2016 to June 2016, she was a fellow of the Institut d'études avancées de Paris (Paris Institute for Advanced Study).^[5]

In 1971, Jefferson married Anthony Glees; they divorced in 1992. Together they had two sons and one daughter. In 2011, she married Michael Holland.^[1]

In 2001, Jefferson was appointed a Member of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government.^[1] In 2004, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.^[4] In 2012, she was promoted to Commander of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.^[1]

• Jefferson, Ann (1980). The Nouveau Roman and the Poetics of Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780-521222396.
• Jefferson, Ann; Robey, David, eds. (1982). Modern Literary Theory: a Comparative Introduction. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0713434545.
• Jefferson, Ann; Robey, David, eds. (1986). Modern Literary Theory: a Comparative Introduction (2nd ed.). London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0713452907.
• Jefferson, Ann (1988). Reading Realism in Stendhal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0511983818.
• Jefferson, Ann (2000). Nathalie Sarraute, Fiction and Theory: Questions of Difference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1139426794.
• Jefferson, Ann (2003). Stendhal: La Chartreuse de Parme. London: Grant & Cutler. ISBN 978-0729304405.
• Jefferson, Ann (2007). Biography and the Question of Literature in France. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199270842.
• Jefferson, Ann (2014). Genius in France: An Idea and its Uses. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691160658.
• Jefferson, Ann (2020). Nathalie Sarraute: A Life Between. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Published in French as Nathalie Sarraute. Paris: Flammarion (2019).