Jean Franco is a British-born academic and literary critic known for her pioneering work on Latin American Literature. Educated at Manchester and London, she has taught at London, Essex (where she was the university's first woman professor), and Stanford, and is currently professor emerita at Columbia University.

Jean Franco's research is wide-ranging and voluminous. She was among the very first English-speaking Latin Americanists to write seriously about Latin American literature. She has particularly focussed on women and women's writing.