diff --git a/src/jinjarope/codetree.py b/src/jinjarope/codetree.py
index 1b9b12a..a71e038 100644
--- a/src/jinjarope/codetree.py
+++ b/src/jinjarope/codetree.py
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ def parse_object(obj: os.PathLike[str] | str | type) -> Node:
     """
     if isinstance(obj, str | os.PathLike):
         path = upath.UPath(obj)
-        content = path.read_text()
+        content = path.read_text("utf-8")
         name = path.name
     else:
         content = inspect.getsource(obj)
diff --git a/src/jinjarope/envglobals.py b/src/jinjarope/envglobals.py
index 1a84a19..0a0f95a 100644
--- a/src/jinjarope/envglobals.py
+++ b/src/jinjarope/envglobals.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def load_file_cached(path: str | os.PathLike[str]) -> str:
     Arguments:
         path: The path to get str content from
     """
-    return upath.UPath(path).read_text()
+    return upath.UPath(path).read_text("utf-8")
 
 
 _cache: dict[str, str] = {}