Ethan West graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor's in French and a Bachelor's in Spanish in 2021. After finishing his undergraduate studies in three years, he participated in the TAPIF program. He worked as an English Language Assistant for seven months in Peyrehorade, France, at the Collège Pays d'Orthe, and at the Lycée Polyvalent Jean-Taris.

He is continuing at OSU as a second-year graduate teaching associate and Ph.D. Student. He is also the Vice-President of The French and Italian Graduate Student Association (FIGSA) and student representative to the FRIT Graduate Studies Committee.

His current area of focus for research and analysis is beur literature, a subset of French and Francophone literature. He is currently looking at the works of Medhi Charef, Azouz Begag, Faïza Guène, and many others. He is also interested in looking at works that challenge and stretch the preconceived notions of what beur literature is defined as.