Amin Erfani
E-mail: amin.erfani@lehman.cuny.edu
Phone: 718-960-8274
Office: Carman Hall, Room 275
Rank: Assistant Professor
Education
- BA in French and Comparative Literature Stony Brook University (SUNY), 2003
- Master’s degree in French, Stony Brook University (SUNY), 2004
- Ph.D., in French & graduate certificates in Comparative Literature and Psychoanalytic Studies, Emory University, 2011
Biography
Amin Erfani received his BA in French and Comparative Literature followed by a master’s degree in French from Stony Brook University (SUNY). He subsequently received a Ph.D. in French with certificates in Comparative Literature and Psychoanalytic Studies from Emory University. He joined the Languages and Literatures Department at Lehman College in 2013. He has offered courses at Lehman College ranging from elementary to advanced French language; French and Francophone literature; special topics on theater; 20th and 21st century French film and novel; interdisciplinary studies on modern France and the Francophone world; Comparative Literature in masterworks of ancient and medieval world literature; prison literature and writing in the Lehman Scholars Program. At the Graduate Center (CUNY), he has devised and taught a course on French and Francophone theater and theory across three different programs; he has also taught the Techniques of Literary Research course for first-year graduate students, while being part of various dissertation committees.
His scholarly publications and conferences focus on avant-garde and contemporary European theater, new media, critical theory, and psychoanalytic studies, as well as French 19th and 20th century poetry. His scholarly monograph, Theatricality Beyond Disciplines, is forthcoming with Intellect Books (distributed by the University of Chicago Press). His own literary work in French and English have appeared in journals and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic, granting him a literary award for innovative writing, as well as a book publication of two plays with the French publisher Éditions Quartett (France). He has collaborated, within and beyond university walls, with cultural organizations and French and American theaters. In that context, he has initiated a series of stage productions combining his own theatrical work with contemporary French plays in Erfani’s own original English translations, culminating in two major book publications of translations of the seminal playwrights Bernard-Marie Koltès (edited & translated) and Valère Novarina (translated). He was the co-organizer of the international virtual conference on translation: “Open Borders: Translation and Its Perils,” sponsored by Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, October 15-16, 2021, and staged readings of his Koltès translations at Villa Albertine, in 2022, and the Martin Segal Theatre, in 2024, in New York City.
Monograph:
- Theatricality Beyond Disciplines, recipient of the Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, CUNY, (2020-2021); with Intellect Books (forthcoming).
Published Translation Books:
- Bernard-Marie Koltès: Seven Plays. Ed. Amin Erfani. Martin E. Segal Theater Center Publications. New York, April 2022.
- An Incomprehensible Mother Tongue. Valère Novarina. Trans. Amin Erfani. Martin E. Segal Theater Center Publications. New York, May 2015.
Recent Articles in Academic Journals:
- « L’Écriture et la mort : Les Valises de Jean Genet ». In Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), September 2023.
- “Artaud’s Contagious Cries: Virtuality as Aurality.” in Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture, Wayne State University Press, September 2023.
- “Secular Prayers: Genet’s Criminal Child.” In Contemporary French and Francophone Studies: SITES, vol. 24, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), August 2020.
- “La Chose musicale de Francis Ponge : vers une résonance pré-textuelle.” Ed. Scott Shinabargar. In La Revue des Sciences Humaines, n°314, avril-juin 2014.
- “Charles Baudelaire et le Théâtre du Mal.” In Revue Littérature, n°157. Ed. Martin Mégevand, Paris: Editions Armand Colin, pp. 51-65, April 2010.
- “Le Texte errant: La Textualité incarnée dans L’Enfant de sable.” In Nouvelles Etudes Francophones, Vol. 21, No.1, pp.79-95, Spring 2006.
Recent Chapters in Books:
- Dictionnaire Bernard-Marie Koltès : « Amérique du Nord. » Ed. Florence Bernard. Éditions Honoré Champion, pp. 412-415, 2022.
- Dictionnaire Bernard-Marie Koltès : « Traduction. » Ed. Florence Bernard. Éditions Honoré Champion, pp. 506-508, 2022.
- Dictionnaire Bernard-Marie Koltès : « Rapport au metteur en scène. » Ed. Florence Bernard. Éditions Honoré Champion, pp. 308-312,2022.
- « Traduire le théâtre de Valère Novarina : anglais américain. » In La République des traducteurs 2. Ed. Constantin Bobas et Marco Baschera, forthcoming 2021.
- Introduction: Bernard-Marie Koltès: Seven Plays. Ed. Amin Erfani. Martin E. Segal Theater Center Publications. New York, forthcoming, 2021.
- “Traduire l'étrangeté de la langue chez Koltès: The Night Just Before the Forests.” In Bernard-Marie Koltès : De l'oeuvre au style en passant par le registre. Ed. André Petitjean. Editions Universitaires de Dijon, June 4, 2014, pp. 265-270.
- “La Parole est une affaire d’essoufflement.” In Dans la solitude de Bernard-Marie Koltès. Ed. Christophe Bident, Arnaud Maïsetti et Sylvie Patron. Revue Textuel. Éditions Hermann, Paris, Fvrier 15, 2014, pp. 51-56.
- “Le Souffle de Bernard-Marie Koltès: les inventions de l’autre dans la Nuit juste avant les forêts.” In Koltès maintenant et autres métamorphoses. Eds. Yannick Butel, Christophe Bident, Christophe Triau, Arnaud Maisetti. Paris, Peter Lang, coll. Liminaires - Passages interculturels italo-ibériques, vol. 18, 2010, pp. 145-160
Website: aminerfani.art
