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Guilan Siassi

Associate Professor (Teaching) of French
Pronouns She / Her / Hers Email gsiassi@usc.edu Office THH 155 Office Phone (213) 740-3700

Biography

Guilan Siassi is Associate Professor of French (teaching) in the Department of French and Italian. Her research engages literary and cultural production of the Francophone Maghreb, Iran, and their diasporas in France and the U.S. She has presented and published on a range of topics related to her broader research interests, which include Maghrebian literature, psychoanalytic theory, the politics and poetics of haunting, women and Islam, translation studies, autobiography, issues of exile and transculturation, and cultural politics in contemporary France.

Guilan teaches all levels of French basic language (I-III), a French IV seminar around the theme of “France and its Others,” as well as an upper division seminar on literary analysis and critical writing in French. Since 2021, she has been running an immersive, experiential Maymester course on “Public Memory and the Ghosts of History” in Paris. Beyond the French department, she also teaches a freshman GE seminar on “The Uncanny and the Otherworldly in World literatures Across the Ages.”

Education

  • Ph.D. Comparative Literature, UCLA, 2011
  • M.Phil. Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge, 2003
  • B.A. Comparative Literature and French, UC Berkeley, 2001

  • Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments

    • Associate Professor (Teaching ) of French, University of Southern California, 2019-
    • Assistant Professor (Teaching) of French, University of Southern California, 2016-2019
    • Lecturer of French, University of Southern California, 2012-2016
    • Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and English, American University of Paris, Spring 2011

    Visiting and Temporary Appointments

    • Visiting Scholar, USC Department of Comparative Literature, 2011-2012

  • Book Chapters

    • Siassi, G., Siassi, S. (2008). “Islam, Sex, and Women.” In The Crescent and the Couch: Cross-Currents between Islam and Psychoanalysis. New York: The Other Press.
    • Siassi, G. (2007). The Insatiable I: Intoxication and Desire in the Baudelairian Aesthetic. Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century Lexington Books.

    Book Review

    • Siassi, G. (2007). New Writings of the Iranian Diaspora (Review Essay). Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies.

    Journal Article

    • Siassi, G. (2016). The Politics and Ethics of Translation in the Works of Abdelkebir Khatibi. Expressions Maghrébines. Vol. 15 (1)
    • Siassi, G. (2008). Itineraries of Desire and the Excesses of Home: Assia Djebar’s Cohabitation with ‘la langue adverse’. L’Esprit Créateur. Vol. 48 (3), pp. 56-68.
    • Siassi, G. (2007). Dreaming the Body into Words: Translating Affect between Cultures in Khatibi’s Amour Bilingue. Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature. Vol. 53
    • Siassi, G. (2005). The Endless Reading of Interpretation? Said, Auerbach, and the Exilic Will to Criticism. Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. Vol. 2 (1)
    • USC Custom Publication of Réseau French 220 textbook (Contributor). Schultz and Tranvouez: Prentice-Hall, 2015, 2015

  • Committees

    • Co-Chair, Faculty Employment and Environment Committee, 2018-2019
    • Member, Employee Benefits Advisory Committee, 2018-2019
    • Co-Chair, Faculty Employment and Environment Committee, 2017-2018
    • Member, Faculty Environment & Employment Committee, 2016-2017
    • Member, Work and Family Life Committee, 2016-2017

    Other Service to the University

    • Advisory Board Member for PACSA (Persian Academic and Cultural Association), 03/01/2018 –
    • Faculty Advisor, Southern California Orphan Aid Project (SCOAP), 2017-2018
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