Guilan Siassi

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Siassi CV
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Guilan Siassi
Email: gsiassi@usc.edu
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
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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)
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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.
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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
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• 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
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“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
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“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).
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“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
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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
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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).
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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
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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
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Atiyeh Showrai, Director of French Language at USC (showrai@usc.edu)
Françoise Lionnet, Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Comparative
Literature at UCLA (flionnet@humnet.ucla.edu)
Geoffrey Gilbert, Chair of Comparative Literature and English at AUP (ggilbert@aup.fr)