Brian Russell Roberts (doctoral degree in English, University of Virginia) is a scholar of multiethnic American literature. He is a full professor of English at Brigham Young University, where he previously directed the American Studies Program for six years and is currently overseeing the English graduate programs.

As a Fulbright US Scholar, Dr. Roberts teaches at Universitas Diponegoro, focusing on the theory of literature, American studies, and a research-writing workshop.

His teaching and scholarship focus on the cultures of the United States in dialogue with the wider international world, particularly Africa and Asia, with a special interest in Indonesia. His publications include Artistic Ambassadors: Literary and International Representation of the New Negro Era (University of Virginia Press, 2013); Indonesian Notebook: A Sourcebook on Richard Wright and the Bandung Conference (Duke University Press, 2016, co-edited with Keith Foulcher); Archipelagic American Studies (Duke University Press, 2017, co-edited with Michelle Ann Stephens); and Borderwaters: Amid the Archipelagic States of America (Duke University Press, 2021).

He has also worked in literary translation, co-translating (with Keith Foulcher and Harry Aveling) a collection of Sitor Situmorang’s short fiction, Oceans of Longing: Nine Stories (Silkworm, 2018), and, with Keith Foulcher, Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s novel Larasati (Lontar, 2025).

Dr. Roberts lived in Indonesia as a teenager and attended Jakarta Intercultural School (formerly Jakarta International School). He later returned to Indonesia as a Fulbright US Scholar at Universitas Sebelas Maret in 2015.