Born in Courbevoie, Hauts-de-Seine, France, Monique Fol (1933 - 1999) was a former Councillor-at-Law in Paris (the first woman to be in charge of the "Services juridiques de la C.R.P.C.E.N."), she held a B.A.C. in Philosophy (Mention Très Bien), Paris; a "Licence en Droit" (Mention Très Bien), Faculté de Droit, Paris; an M.B.A., M.A. (Highest Distinction), University of California at Berkeley; and a French Doctorate ("Mention Très Bien, avec les Félicitations du Jury"), Université de Nice, France.

          Besides teaching at Boston College, where she was a Full Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures "d’expression française," she taught at the University of British Columbia, University of California at Berkeley, and Wellesley College. She also specialized in Comparative and Cinema Studies.

          The recipient of numerous "Bourses" from the French Ministère de l’Education Nationale, she also received grants and fellowships from Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, Newberry Funds for Foreign Researchers, Boston College, N.E.H., Ford, Mellon and Woodrow Wilson Foundations, F.A.C.F.A., "Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et des Relations Internationales," "la Bibliothèque Nationale" (Paris), French Public Television and the Ministère de la Culture, Quebec. She was selected and invited to appear on a special television broadcast in Boston, entitled "Against All Odds, The Three Most Remarkable Severely Disabled Women in New England."

          Monique Fol figured amongst the collaborators of the Programme de Recherche sur Emile Zola et le Naturalisme; Correspondance Emile Zola, Volumes II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX. She participated in The International Program of the University of Minnesota, The Family of Man, as author, consultant, and photographer. She published articles on the legal, historical, and socio-psychological consequences of the French Bourgeoisie and the French Catholic Church’s behaviour toward the French "prolétariat" in the XIXth century, as well as on les Goncourt, Jean de Boschère, Gustave Moreau, Rodin, Aloysius Bertrand, Robert de Montesquiou, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Lacan, Marguerite Duras, and Emile Zola.

          She wrote Un Certain Style (University of California, ASUC, 1960), in coll. with Paul Barette, Un certain style ou Un style Certain (Oxford University Press, 1969, revised 1974) in coll. with Paul Barette, Les mots pour l’écrire (Prentice-Hall, 1990), Jean de Boschère ou le chemin du retour (Peter Lang, 1987), Le Temps de la confidence (Peter Lang, 1989).

          Monique Fol was the Founder of the AIZEN (Association International for Multidisciplinary Approaches and Comparative Studies related to Emile Zola and his Time, Naturalism, Naturalist Writers and Artists, Naturalism and the Cinema Around the World) and the Founder/ Editor of Excavatio from 1991 to 1998.