Sylvain Briens is professor of Nordic literature and cultural history at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. After a career in the telecommunications industry and at the United Nations, he has taught Scandinavian languages, literatures and civilisation at the University of Strasbourg and then at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. His research primarily addresses modern and contemporary Scandinavian literature.

His most notable publications include:

Paris, laboratoire de la littérature scandinave moderne. 1880-1905. Paris, L’Harmattan (collection Histoire de Paris), 2010 [Paris, Laboratory of Modern Scandinavian Literature, 1880-1905]

Lyriska ingenjörer. Tåg och telefon i svensk litteratur. Linköping, LiU-tryck (Tema Kultur och samhälle), 2009

Technique et littérature. Train, téléphone et génie littéraire suédois. Suivi d’une anthologie bilingue de la poésie suédoise du train et du téléphone. Paris, L’Harmattan, 2004 [Technics and Literature. Train, Telephone and Swedish Literary Genius. Followed by a Bilingual Anthology of Swedish Poetry of the Train and Telephone]