USC.edu

Erin Graff Zivin

Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature
Erin Graff Zivin
Email egz@usc.edu Office THH 156 Office Phone (213) 740-7659

Biography

Erin Graff Zivin is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature, Director of the USC Dornsife Experimental Humanities Lab, and Acting Director of the USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities. Her research focuses on modern and contemporary Latin American literature and media, deconstruction, the relationship between ethics, politics, and aesthetics, and the intersection of philosophy and critical theory more broadly. Prof. Graff Zivin is the author of Anarchaeologies: Reading as Misreading (Fordham UP, 2020), Figurative Inquisitions: Conversion, Torture, and Truth in the Luso-Hispanic Atlantic (Northwestern UP, 2014, winner of the 2015 Award for Best Book, Latin American Jewish Studies Association), and The Wandering Signifier: Rhetoric of Jewishness in the Latin American Imaginary (Duke UP, 2008). She is co-editor of Terror: La perspectiva hispana (Guillermo Escolar, 2020), and editor of The Marrano Specter: Derrida and Hispanism (Fordham University Press, 2017), The Ethics of Latin American Literary Criticism: Reading Otherwise (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). She is also editor of a special issue of Discourse on the work of Peggy Kamuf (2019), and co-editor (with Tracy McNulty) of a special issue of Diacritics on the topic of “Women in Theory” (2022). Graff Zivin currently heads the international “Women in Theory” collective, serves on the Executive Council of the Modern Language Association, oversees the digitization of the filmic work of Narcisa Hirsch (a collaboration between USC Digital Library and the Filmoteca Narcisa Hirsch), and is completing a book on experimental transmedial aesthetics.

Education

  • Ph.D. Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, New York University, 5/2004
  • M.A. Comparative Literature and Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 5/1998

  • Tenure Track Appointments

    • Chair, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, 2017 – 2022
    • Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, 2014 –
    • Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Southern California, 2013 – 2016
    • Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, 2009 – 2014
    • Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Southern California, 2008-2009
    • Assistant Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh, 2004 – 2008

  • Book

    • Graff Zivin, E. (2021). Anarqueologías: Ética y política de la lectura errada. Buenos Aires: Prometeo Editorial. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, Erin; Jacques Lezra, Alberto Moreiras, and José Luis Villacañas (Ed.). (2020). Terror: La perspectiva hispana. Madrid: Guillermo Escolar. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2020). Anarchaeologies: Reading as Misreading. Fordham University Press. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, Erin (Ed.). (2017). The Marrano Specter: Derrida and Hispanism. New York, NY: Fordham University Press. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). Inquisiciones Figurativas: Conversión, tortura y verdad en el Atlántico Luso-Hispano. Buenos Aires, Argentina: La Cebra. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2014). Figurative Inquisitions: Conversion, Torture, and Truth in the Luso-Hispanic Atlantic. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2008). The Wandering Signifier: Rhetoric of Jewishness in the Latin American Imaginary. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, Erin (Ed.). (2007). The Ethics of Latin American Literary Criticism: Reading Otherwise. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. LINK

    Book Chapters

    • Graff Zivin, E. (2023). Derrida, lector de Levinas. Jacques Derrida: el arte de leer pp. 49-68. Buenos Aires: Katz Editores.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2023). Cecil Taylor. Música y capitalismo Madrid: Guillermo Escolar.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2023). Exposición, experimento, exapropiación: Después del sujeto (latinoamericano). Sujetos del latinoamericanismo pp. 37-56. Pittsburgh, PA: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2022). Distorting Latinamericanism. Routledge Companion to 20th and 21st C. Latin Amer pp. 389-397. New York: Routledge.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2021). El giro ético o Levinas en Latinoamérica. Nuevos acercamientos a los estudios latinoamerican pp. 119-139. UNAM/CLASCO. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2020). Del Marranismo: Derrida avec Montaigne. Terror: La perspectiva hispana pp. 157-166. Madrid: Guillermo Escolar. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2019). Marranismo, Allegory and the Unsayable in Arturo Ripstein’s El Santo Oficio. The Films of Arturo Ripstein pp. 83-106. Palgrave.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2018). El agotamiento de la responsabilidad; o, para una universidad pasiva. La universidad (im)posible pp. 140-148. Santiago: Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). Deconstruction and its Precursors: Levinas and Borges after Derrida. The Marrano Specter: Derrida and Hispanism pp. 138-152. New York: Fordham University Press.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). Introduction: Derrida’s Marranismo. The Marrano Specter: Derrida and Hispanism pp. 1-12. New York: Fordham University Press.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). The Ethical Turn. New Approaches to Latin American Studies pp. 65-79. New York: Routledge. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E., de Ferrari, G., Quiroga, J., Siskind, M., Masiello, F., Melo Miranda, W., Wells, S., del Valle, I. (2017). Comparative Literature and Latin American Literary Studies. Futures of Comparative Literature LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2016). Writing in Latin America. Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies (Vol. 3) London: Wiley-Blackwell.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2015). El pensar-marrano, o, hacia un latinoamericanismo an-arqueológico. Post-hegemonía pp. 205-216. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2012). El lenguaje secuestrado: Estetica, etica y politica en Los planetas de Sergio Chejfec. Sergio Chejfec: Trayectorias de una escritura pp. 87-100. Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2012). Ethics. Dictionary of Latin American Cultural Studies pp. 147-152. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2008). “The Scene of the Transaction: ‘Jewishness,’ Money and Prostitution in the Brazilian Imaginary.” Rethinking Jewish-Latin Americans. pp. 106-131. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2007). “Introduction: Reading Otherwise.” The Ethics of Latin American Literary Criticism: Reading Otherwise. pp. 1-7. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2006). “Cuerpos errantes, sujetos patológicos en la obra de Luisa Futoransky y Margo Glantz.” Memoria y representación: Configuraciones culturales y literarias en el imaginario judío latinoamericano. pp. 249-262. Rosario: Beatriz Viterbo Editora.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2005). “Sick Jews: Disease and Deformity in Luisa Futoransky’s De Pe a Pa: De Pekín a París and Margo Glantz’s ‘Zapatos: Andante con variaciones.’” Luisa Futoransky y su palabra itinerante. Montevideo: Hermes Criollo.

    Journal Article

    • Graff Zivin, E. (2024). Exposure. Political Concepts. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2023). Transmedial Ekphrasis: César Aira’s “Cecil Taylor” as Black Hole. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. Vol. LVII (3), pp. 499-517. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2022). Irritating Subjects. Diacritics. Vol. 49 (2), pp. 119-125. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2022). Introduction: Women in Theory. Diacritics. Vol. 49 (2), pp. 5-11. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2022). Trans-genre Lyotard. Philosophy Today. Vol. 66 (2), pp. 345-364. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2022). Sobre la naturaleza de las cosas de Lezra. Res Publica. Revista de Historia de las Ideas Políticas. Vol. 25 (1) LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2021). Historia de un espectro. Revista rizoma. Vol. 1 (1), pp. 48-57. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2020). Transmedial Noise: Babel and the Translation of Radio. Yearbook of Comparative Literature. Vol. 63, pp. 160-178.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2020). Hineni, hineni: Violent Ethics in Kierkegaard, Levinas, Derrida and Cohen. Cahiers d’études lévinassiennes. pp. 150-166.
    • Graff Zivin, E., Lippit, A. M. (2019). Introduction, In Honor of Peggy Kamuf. Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture. Vol. 41 (2-3), pp. 185-191.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). Beyond Jameson: The Metapolitics of Allegory. Yearbook of Comparative Literature. Vol. 41, pp. 156-173.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). El giro ético, o, Levinas en Latinoamérica. Revista Pléyade. Vol. 19 Link to Revista Pleyade
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). Más allá de Jameson: La metapolítica de la alegoría. Revista Transas. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2017). Cuatreros, de Albertina Carri: herencia an-árquica. Revista Transas. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2016). Ante la ley: Interrogación, interpelación y la producción de la culpa. Revista Iberoamericana. Vol. 257, pp. 759-774.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2016). The Aesthetics and Politics of Error. Política Común: A Journal of Thought. Vol. 10 LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2014). Marrano Secrets, Or, Misunderstanding Literature. CR: The New Centennial Review. Vol. 14 (3), pp. 75-92.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2014). Beyond Inquisitional Logic, or, Toward an An-archaeological Latin Americanism. CR: The New Centennial Review. Vol. 14 (1), pp. 195-211.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2013). Politics Against Ethics. Política Común. A Journal of Thought. Vol. 4 LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2012). Aporias of Marranismo: Sabina Berman’s En el nombre de Dios and Jom Tob Azulay’s O Judeu. CR: The New Centennial Review. Vol. 12 (3), pp. 187-216.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2012). Seeing and Saying: Towards an Ethics of Truth in Jose Saramago. SubStance. Vol. 41 (1), pp. 109-123.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2012). Kidnapped Language: Aesthetics, Ethics and Politics in Sergio Chejfec’s Los planetas. Journal of Jewish Identities. Vol. 5 (1), pp. 77-87.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2011). Semitic Mysteries, Universal Truths: Jewishness and Arabness in Jorge Luis Borges. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. Vol. 6 (2), pp. 121-139.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2008). Diagnósticos modernistas de Max Nordau: Darío, Ingenieros y Silva leen al médico judío. Estudios: Revista de Investigaciones Literarias y Culturales. Vol. 14 (28), pp. 171-186.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2007). Writing the Absent Face: ‘Jewishness’ and the Limits of Representation in Borges, Piglia and Chejfec. MLN (Modern Language Notes). Vol. 122 (2), pp. 350-370.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2006). Transacciones judías y discursos promiscuos en “Emma Zunz.”. Variaciones Borges. Vol. 22, pp. 191-199.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2005). Conversiones textuales, inquisiciones transatlánticas: La figura de la cristiana nueva en Dias Gomes y Antonio Gala. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies. Vol. 6 (3), pp. 259-269.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2005). Reading Max Nordau: Unspeakable Difference in Spanish American Modernism. Chasqui; revista de literatura latinoamericana. Vol. 34 (1), pp. 102-113.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2004). The Face of the Other: Diagnosing Jewishness in Latin American Literature. Modern Jewish Studies. Vol. 14, pp. 91-101.

    Other

    • Graff Zivin, Erin and Tracy McNulty (Ed.). (2022). Dossier: Women in Theory. Diacritics.
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2021). Pensamiento exote; o, experimentos transmediales. Escrituras americanas. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2020). Difficult Elections. Jewschool. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2020). Listening to Color. Jewschool. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, E. (2020). Live free; or, die. Jewschool. LINK
    • Graff Zivin, Erin (Ed.). (2019). Dossier: In Honor of Peggy Kamuf. Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture.
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