10/15/14 10:39 PM Siassi CV Page 1 of 1 Guilan Siassi Email: [email protected] Department of French and Italian University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0353 Phone: 213.740.3700 Home Address 2512 Beverwil Drive Los Angeles, CA 90034 Phone: 424.603.4047 EDUCATION University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Ph.D., Comparative Literature, December 2010 • Focus of doctoral research on world literatures in French, Persian, and English with an emphasis in psychoanalytic and social theory • Dissertation Title: Un(der)writing Home: The Politics and Poetics of Belonging in Modern Literatures of Iran and the Maghreb. Committee: Professors Françoise Lionnet (chair), Ali Behdad, and Nasrin Rahimieh University of Cambridge, England M. Phil. Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, November 2003 • Thesis Title: The Development of National Sentiment in Persian Literature of the Late Qajar Period. Focus of studies on Persian history and literature from 10th through 20th century. University of California, Berkeley B.A. Comparative Literature; B.A. French (magna cum laude), May 2001 OTHER ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS Conseil National des Universités (France) : Qualification aux fonctions de maître de conférences, Section 10 (Littérature comparée). Jury : Professor Anne Tomiche & Dr. Crystel Pinçonnat. (2011) OTHER STUDY Université Paris IV - Sorbonne: enrolled in department of French Literature (2008-2009) École Normale Supérieure, rue d’Ulm: enrolled in Foreign Exchange Program (2007-2008) Université de Lyon-II, France: enrolled in UC Education Abroad Program (1998-1999) HONORS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS • • • • Rosenfield-Abrams Dissertation Year Fellowship (awarded to a doctoral student in the humanities and social sciences with exceptional promise), UCLA (2009-2010) International Institute Fieldwork Fellowship, UCLA (Fall 2007) Lenart Travel Fellowship for Dissertation Research, UCLA (Summer 2007) Horst Frenz Prize for Best Paper Presented by a Graduate Student at the Annual Meeting, American Comparative Literature Association (2006) 10/15/14 10:39 PM • • • • • • • • • Siassi CV Page 2 of 2 Graduate Research Mentorship, UCLA (2006-2007) Selected Participant (with scholarship) in University of Iowa Graduate Student Translation Colloquium (Spring 2006) Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Title VI (2005-2006) Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Award, UCLA (June-August 2005) Scholarship for participation in “Psychoanalysis and Politics” Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory at UC Humanities Research Institute (August 2004) Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, Semi-Finalist (2002) Golden Key Literary Achievement Award for Excellence in News/Feature writing (2001) Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society, Lifetime member (inducted 2000) Golden Key National Honor Society, Lifetime Member (inducted 2000) TEACHING Lecturer of French, University of Southern California, Fall 2012-present • French 120: First semester, introductory course emphasizing oral practice, listening and reading comprehension, along with grammar necessary for simple spoken and written expression. Textbook: Deux Mondes. • French 150: Second semester, low-intermediate level course emphasizing language acquisition through individual and group-based oral production. Pilot course taught in Fall 2013. Textbook: Deux Mondes. • French 220: Third semester intermediate level course aimed at developing oral and written proficiency while emphasizing cultural competency through the study of short films, audiovisuals, and literary texts from France and the francophone world. Textbook: Imaginez. • French 250 (independently designed and taught): Fourth semester advanced course emphasizing close-reading techniques and discursive skills through readings of texts and audiovisuals around the theme “France and its Others.” Audiovisuals include films (Kassovitz, Chadha), songs (Aznavour, Diams’), and Orientalist paintings (Delacroix). Writings include poems, short stories, articles on historical and current events, (Baudelaire, Maupassant, Damas, Kristeva, Assia Djebar, Colonial Exposition, The Dreyfus Affair, etc.), and the novel Un Aller simple by D. Van Cauwelaert. Textbook: L’Exercisier Adjunct Professor, Pepperdine, Summer 2013 • Design and direction of French 152 (French II). Second semester, low-intermediate level course emphasizing language acquisition through individual and group-based oral production. Textbook: Motifs. Guest Lecturer, COLT 575: “Colonial Affect” Seminar (Prof. Neetu Khanna). USC, Nov. 2012 • Led graduate Comparative Literature seminar on theme of “Colonial Hauntings.” Guided students through readings of Freud and Ranjana Khanna, providing further background on theories of transgenerational haunting (Abraham/Torok, Derrida). Discussion focused on the intersection between psychoanalysis, postcolonial studies, and trauma theory. Guest speaker, New Center for Psychoanalysis Film Series (Continuing Education Program), June 2012 • Led discussion of the film Women without Men (Shirin Neshat, 2009) from a psychoanalytic perspective, focusing on the use of dream narrative and dream work in the film as well as its representation of the psychic life of Muslim women in an oppressive patriarchal society. 10/15/14 10:39 PM Siassi CV Page 3 of 3 Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, American University of Paris, Spring 2011 • Design and direction of two sections of English 110, College Writing Seminar around the theme “The Uncanny and the Otherworldly: Ghosts and Haunting in World Literatures from Antiquity to the Present Day.” Graduate Student Instructor, UC Paris Fall Program in French & European Studies, 2007-2008 th • Direction of undergraduate discussion section on 20 century French music and culture. Language Instructor, UC Paris Summer Program in French & European Studies, 2008 • Design and direction of French I-II language course during its pilot summer session. Guila Teaching Assistant, UCLA Department of Comparative Literature, 2004-2005 • Direction of three quarters of writing-intensive undergraduate sections on world literatures from Antiquity through the European Enlightenment. OTHER ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS Visiting Scholar, USC Department of Comparative Literature, 2011-2012 Thesis Advisor, AUP M.A. Program in Cultural Translation, Summer 2011 • Supervision of Masters student in the preparation of a thesis on cinematic representations of violence in Algeria (narrowing of topic, feedback on drafts, approval of final manuscript). Research Advisor, AUP M.A. Program in Cultural Translation, Fall 2010 • Directed study with Masters student in developing a research project on Western and Middle Eastern media representations of the Muslim world. Provided oversight and guidance in the preparation of thesis proposal and extended bibliography. ACADEMIC ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS • • • • • “Itineraries of Desire and the Excesses of Home: Assia Djebar’s Cohabitation with ‘la langue adverse.’” L’Esprit Créateur. 48.3 (Winter 2008). “Islam, Sex, and Women.” (Co-Author). In The Crescent and the Couch: Cross-Currents between Islam and Psychoanalysis. Ed. Salman Akhtar. New York: The Other Press (2008). “Dreaming the Body into Words: Translating Affect between Cultures in Khatibi's Amour Bilingue.” Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature. 53 (2007). “The Insatiable I: Intoxication and Desire in the Baudelairian Aesthetic.” In Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century: Narratives of Consumption, 1700-1900. Eds. T.S. Wagner and N. Hassan. Lexington Books (2007). “The Endless Reading of Interpretation? Said, Auerbach, and the Exilic Will to Criticism.” Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. 2.1 (January 2005). http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/portal/splash/ [Online peer-reviewed journal]. OTHER PUBLICATIONS • • “The Re-creation of a Middle Eastern Story in Latin America” (Translation of Persian article by R. Zaryab). Journal of Persianate Studies (2012). “New Writings of the Iranian Diaspora.” Review Essay. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies. 3.3 (Fall 2007). 10/15/14 10:39 PM • Siassi CV Page 4 of 4 “Notes on Urban Experience in Iranian Narrative Fiction” (Translation of Persian article by J.F. Alavi). Studies on Persianate Societies Volume 3 (2005/1384). CONFERENCES AND PANELS ORGANIZED • • Co-organizer, Finders/Seekers: Travel Encounters in and out of Persianate Lands. A One-Day Symposium, UCLA. May 2011. Panel organizer and Chair, “Language(s) of Belonging in Iran and its Diaspora” Eighth Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies. May 2010. SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Invited: “Representing the Muslim Other in French Literature and Film.” Cal State University, Los Angeles, (May 2013). “The Spectral Promise of Home: Encrypted Memories and Transgenerational Haunting in Shahrnush Parsipur and Assia Djebar.” ACLA Annual Meeting, Toronto (April 2013). “Imperialism, Culture Shock, and the Inauguration of a Modern Feminine Subject in Iranian Fiction.” Finders/Seekers Symposium, UCLA (May 2011). Invited: “The Cultural Politics of Faith in Old and New Media Representations of the Muslim Other: A Workshop in Cultural Translation” American University of Paris M.A. Program in Cultural Translation, December 2010. “Mother-Tongue and Father-Word in Jamalzadeh’s Farsi Shekar Ast.” Eighth Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies. May 2010. “The Specular Other and the Mirror of the Text: Two Approaches to Decolonizing the Terrains of “Identity” 5th International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, American University in Paris (July 2007). Invited: “Mapping Home in Goli Taraghi’s ‘Father.’” Re-Imagining Iran: Symposium Sponsored by the Jordan Center for Persian Studies, UC Irvine. (May 2007). “Traveling Histories and Virtual Affective Communities in Amitav Ghosh’s In an Antique Land.” ACLA Annual Meeting, Puebla, Mexico (April 2007). “Islam in Europe: Yamina Benguigui’s Two-Sided Critique.” 11th Annual French and Francophone Studies Graduate Conference, UCLA. (Nov. 2006). “Pen-Cases, Flower Vases, and Poisoned Wine: Remnants of Time in Sadeq Hedayat’s The Blind Owl.” Sixth Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies, London (August 2006). “Who’s that man in the mirror? Memmi, Khatibi, and the Divergent Fates of a Specular Border Intellectual.” French Graduate Conference, UCSB (May 2006). “Dreaming the Body into Words: Translating Affect between Cultures in Khatibi's Amour Bilingue.” ACLA Annual Meeting, Princeton University (March 2006). “Image, Fragment, Punctum: L'holographie kaléidoscopique de Roland Barthes.” French Graduate Conference, New York University (February 2006). “Movements of Memory in Madame Bovary and Swann’s Way.” Transparent Borders Graduate Conference, University of Oregon (November 2004). “Alterity and Dissent: Intimations of Nationalism in Early Modern Iran.” Intersections Conference, University of Manchester (June 2003). 10/15/14 10:39 PM Siassi CV Page 5 of 5 ACADEMIC SERVICE Book and Peer Reviewer, Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (2008-2011, ad hoc basis) Research Assistant to Prof. Ali Behdad, UCLA Department of Comparative Literature, Fall 2007 Research Assistant to Prof. Pascale Casanova, UCLA Dept. of Comparative Literature, Spring 2005 Research Assistant to Gil Hochberg, UCLA Department of Comparative Literature, Spring 2004 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING University of Southern California • “Multimedia in the Classroom.” Presentation by Prof. Danielle Mihram sponsored by the Dept. of French and Italian. USC, December 10, 2013. • “Going Beyond the Intermediate Plateau : What Does it Take?” Workshop led by Chantal Thompson, Language Director at BYU and ACTFL tester and trainer. USC, February 8, 2013. • “Creative Classroom Strategies: Tools from Language Instruction.” Faculty Forum sponsored by Center for Scholarly Technology. USC, January 25, 2013. • ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Workshop. USC, December 17-20, 2012 University of Cambridge • ESOL Level 5 Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults, November 2009 UCLA Department of Comparative Literature • Preparation for Teaching Literature and Composition (4-unit course), Fall 2004 PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS • • • • • Modern Language Association (2001-present) American Comparative Literature Association (2006-present) International Society for Iranian Studies (2006-present) Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (2005-present) American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages (2013-present) LANGUAGES Formal and conversational fluency in English (primary language), French and Persian; basic knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic. REFERENCES • • • Atiyeh Showrai, Director of French Language at USC ([email protected]) Françoise Lionnet, Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Comparative Literature at UCLA ([email protected]) Geoffrey Gilbert, Chair of Comparative Literature and English at AUP ([email protected])