C U R R I C U L U M   V I T A E

 

C A M E L I A   E L I A S


HOME Ahornlunden, 5, 2 th ~ 4000 Roskilde ~ Denmark, phone: +45 40480018

WORK Dept. of Culture and Identity ~ Roskilde University ~ Universitetsvej 1 ~ Postboks 260 ~ 4000 Roskilde ~ Denmark
 

 

PERSONALIA

  • Born in Arad, Romania, October 22, 1968

  • Citizenship: Danish

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

  •  PhD (English/Comparative Literature) 2002, University of Southern Denmark

PhD thesis: The Fragment: Towards a History and Poetics of a Performative Genre
Thesis supervisor: Lars Ole Sauerberg, University of Southern Denmark. Thesis committee: Torben Ditlevsen, Aalborg University; Charles Lock, University of Copenhagen; Roy Sellars, University of Southern Denmark

  • MA Honours (English, literary hermeneutics) 1998, Aalborg University

MA thesis: The Art of Theorizing as Mediated by Epigraphs

  • BA (English) 1996, Aalborg University

GRANTS

  • Various research and conference grants from the Obel Foundation, Aalborg (4000 euros) 2003-2006

  • First book publication grant. UBVA (Udvalget til Beskyttelse af Videnskabeligt Arbejde) (9100 DKR) 2006

  • Post-doctoral research; GRICES/DRC post-doctoral grant:

The Theory of Wit & the Wit of Theory: The Use of Aphorisms in Literary Theory and Philosophy

Faculdade De Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Estudos Comparatistas, 2003 

LANGUAGES

  • Romanian (native speaker)

  • Danish (near native fluency)

  • English (near native fluency)

  • Italian (speak, read, write)

  • French (speak, read, write)

Reading proficiency

  • Norwegian and Swedish - excellent level

  • Portuguese - fair

  • German - not very impressive, but I can manage some

TEACHING POSITIONS

  • Roskilde University, Associate Professor, Department of Culture and Identity, (permanent/tenure position) 2007-current

  • Aalborg University, Associate Professor (one-year appointment), Department of Languages, Culture and Aesthetics, 2005-2006

  • Aalborg University, Lecturer, Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, 2002-2005

  • University of Southern Denmark, PhD student; research related courses (Fragmentary Signatures: Baroque Manifestations in Postmodern Literature) and MA thesis supervision, 1999-2002

  • Aalborg University; teaching assistant – English Department; courses (Contemporary Canadian Ironies), paper and project supervision,  1998-1999

  • Vesthimmerlands Gymnasium (high school); substitute teacher in English 1998

  • Danish Language School for Foreigners; teaching volunteer in English and Danish, 1995-1997

FACULTY EXCHANGES

  • Brenau University, 1-16 October 2003. Exchange program featuring teaching, lecturing, and class presentations (classes on "Nation and Nationalism", and "Postmodernism"; presentation at the International Education Committee; presentation at the Center for Teaching Excellence)

  • Oulu University, 25 April - 1 May 2005. Exchange program involving teaching an introduction to literary theory course.

RESEARCH INTERESTS & PERSONAL PURSUITS

  • Literary theory and criticism, both its history, spanning from the German Romantics to postmodern discourses, and its current manifestations in continental philosophy and American post-structuralism

  • Cultural theory - more specifically culture expressed through fashion and its manifestations in literary genres such as Chick Lit., and culture that charts geographies of belonging - I have recently edited two volumes for the Cultural Text Studies series published by Aalborg University Press (CTS1: An Introduction; CTS2: Transatlantic (both appeared at the end of 2005)).

  • Film and Media Studies; film theory (see my Between Gazes book)

  • Generic aspects of literary concepts, such as the fragment, the aphorism, the epitaph, and the epigraph, and my teaching and writing covers related areas such as the essay (both philosophical and literary), and the prose poem. In this line of research and teaching I mostly draw on contemporary Anglophone texts

  • Comparative literature and the borderlands between literature, philosophy, art history, and religion

  • I have just finalized a monograph on Lynn Emanuel's poetry, as well as working on a book manuscript, In cite: Epistemologies of Creative Writing.

  • In my pastime I read math books, esp. mathematical analysis (set theory, group theory, and number theory), I write prose poems that combine literary imagination with scholarship, and I paint.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

  • Universidade de Lisboa, 2003: Post-doctoral research fellow, at the invitation of prof. Helena Carvalhão Buescu

  • Università degli Studi di Siena, 2002: European School for Comparative Studies SYNAPSIS 2002 - "Encounters"

  • Columbia University, New York, 2001: Visiting scholar at French Dept., (at the invitation of prof. Michael Riffaterre, Sept - Dec.)

  • New York University, 2001: Seminars and personal supervision with prof. Avital Ronell and Jacques Derrida

  • Aarhus University, Denmark, 2000: PhD seminar on Narrative, Literature, Media with project: Narrative in a Nutshell: the epigrammatic writing of Marcel Bénabou

  • Columbia University, NY, 2000: Visiting scholar at French Dept., (at the invitation of prof. Michael Riffaterre, Sept.-Dec.); seminars and supervision with prof. Gayatri Spivak, Andreas Huyssen, Arthur Danto, and Isaac Levi

  • New York University, 2000: Seminars and personal supervision with prof. Avital Ronell and Jacques Derrida

  • Williams College, Williamstown, 2000: Seminars and personal supervision with prof. Mark C. Taylor

  • Nordic PhD seminar in Aesthetics, Oslo, 2000: Seminar on Aesthetic Experience and Interpretation, Lysebu-Oslo, with project: Wit as Final Aesthetic Imperative – the fragmentary and the incomplete in Schlegel, Blanchot, and Jabès

  • Annual PhD seminar in Comparative Literature, Sandbjerg, 2000: Seminar on Literary Method and Analysis, with project: Fragments

GUEST LECTURES AND INVITED PRESENTATIONS

  • University of Birmingham. A British Beat Poetry Evening Reading: Featuring Ian McMillan, David Tipton, Dick McBride, Jim Burns and Camelia Elias. Intro. by John Lucas. Reading prose poems from Eight Senses Plus Two (2008) and the forthcoming collection of prose poems about different types of epistemologies In Cite. January 21, 2009

  • Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters/English Program: "Exile Writing, Translated Knowledge: Andrei Codrescu’s Road Scholar". December 3, 2007

  • Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Letters/English Program: "Sesame Undone: Negotiations of (Virtual) Space in Raymond Federman’s first person narratives". December 5, 2007

  • The Romanian Embassy in Copenhagen. Colloquium: Romanian Intellectuals in Denmark: "English and American Studies at Roskilde University". November 2, 2007

  • FUHU Conference Center/The American Embassy in Copenhagen: The State of American Studies in Denmark...and Beyond. Panel discussion with paper: "American Studies at Roskilde University". October 31, 2007

  • Dept. of Language and Culture: Melodrama course. "Whose Story, Whose Melodrama, Whose Mellowing?" September 20, 2007

  • Dept. of Language and Culture: "Passion through Fassion and Shopping for Forgiveness in The Merchant of Venice". March 30, 2007

  • 8.Marts-gruppen: Feminister i Aalborg: Oplæg med debat: "Hun sagde... Han sagde... Og hun havde ret: Et manifest for feministisk formalisme". Aalborg Studenterhus 8. marts 2007

  • University of Aveiro. Invited as keynote speaker. "Unbeginnings: The Fragment as a Round Space". Colloque on Forma Breve. September 29, 2006

  • L'Université de Rouen: Invited as plenary speaker. Prose/Poetry - The Prose Poem: Generic Dualities. International conference organized by U of Rouen and Paris X Nanterre on Dualité(s): Dualities. November 4-5, 2005

  • Helsinki University, Renvall Institute: "Counter Frames: The Generic Crossroads of the Prose Poem". April 23, 2005

  • Aalborg University, English Dept.: "Expropriated titles in Lynn Emanuel's Poetry of Impropriety". Guest Lecture Series featuring the topic Untitled. Co-presenters Bent Sørensen and Søren Hattesen Balle. Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies. February 7, 2005

  • Brenau University, Gainesville: Integrations. November 17, 2004

  • Aalborg University, English Dept.: "Transmitting (to) Derrida. Guest Lecture Series featuring the topic: Five Faces of Derrida. Co-presenters Bent Sørensen, Søren Hattesen Balle, Steen Christiansen. Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies. October 18, 2004

  • Aalborg University, English Dept.: "Road Scholar" - A View of American Culture from a Writer in Transit. Presentation and screening of Andrei Codrescu's documentary on American Culture. October 4, 2004

  • Aalborg University, English Dept.: Shoes, Culture, and Interesting Identity. March 29, 2004

  • University of Lisbon, Center for Comparative Studies: A Mile in Her Shoes: Culture Metamorphoses in Rebecca Miller's "Personal Velocity". November 24, 2003

  • University of Porto, Dept. of German Studies: A Mile in Her Shoes: Culture Metamorphoses in Rebecca Miller's "Personal Velocity". October 31, 2003

  • Brenau University, Gainesville: Performing Postmodern Epitaphs. October 2, 2003

  • Brenau University, Gainesville: Strategic Belonging: Learning another Language. October 3, 2003

  • Aalborg University, English Dept.: The Graveyard of Genre: David Markson's Postmodern Epitaphs. March, 2003

  • VUC Aalborg (The Aalborg Center for Adult Education): I Trecentisti: Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca. September, 2003

  • Aalborg University, Center for Aesthetics and Logic: The Ekphrastic Plastic Fragment. 2000 

CONFERENCES

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

WORKING ON

EDITED VOLUMES

ARTICLES

  • "There is a Text in 'The Balloon': Donald Barthelme's Allegorical Flights." Marvellous Fantasy. Ed. Jørgen Riber Christensen. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press, 2009. pp. 125-143. (ISBN: 978-87-7307-962-1)

  • "Densiture" (7 pp.): Introduction to E.M. Cioran's The Book of Delusions of which I've translated the whole of chapter 5 - (first time translation) (40 pp.). Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics. Vol./Bind: 4. Nr.: 2. December 2009

  • "Take it, Leave it, Fold it: Playing with Raymond Federman." Federman Frenzy: the 'cult' in culture, the 'me' in memory, the 'he' in history - encounters with Raymond Federman. Camelia Elias, ed. Aalborg University: Department of Language and Culture, 2008, 5-9 pp. (Research News 1, ISSN: 1902-9543)

  • "Sesame Undone: Negotiations of Virtual Space in Federman's blog [the laugh that laughs at the laugh]. Federman Frenzy: the 'cult' in culture, the 'me' in memory, the 'he' in history - encounters with Raymond Federman. Camelia Elias, ed. Aalborg University: Department of Language and Culture, 2008, 45-66 pp. (Research News 1, ISSN: 1902-9543)

  • "Epilog[ical] Encounters" (written with Raymond Federman). Federman Frenzy: the 'cult' in culture, the 'me' in memory, the 'he' in history - encounters with Raymond Federman. Camelia Elias, ed. Aalborg University: Department of Language and Culture, 2008, 67-81 pp. (Research News 1, ISSN: 1902-9543)

  • "The Body 'Prefers Not to': Nietzsche on Ethereal Run in Melville and Acker". Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics. Vol. II. Nr. 3. 2007. New York: The Nietzsche Circle, pp. 1-17

  • "Prose/Poetry - The Prose Poem: Generic Dualities". Bulletin de la Société de Stylistique Anglaise. Dualité(s)/Dualities. CREA: Paris X - Nanterre. 2007, pp. 81-94 (ISSN: 0240-4273)

  • "Dreaming Aphorisms". Cercles: Interdisciplinary Journal of Anglophone Literature - Occasional Papers Series (2007) Nr.9. Ed. Mireille Quivy and Philippe Romanski. September 2007, pp. 103-109 (ISSN: 1292-8968)

  • "On the Influence of Ovid" (with Bent Sørensen). Bloom's Guides. T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. (1 udg.). New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism. An Imprint of Infobase Publishing, 2007 (This is a second reprint of the article "T.S Eliot's: The Waste Land" in The Explicator, 2004) (ISBN: 978-0-7910-9361-0, 0-7910-9361-1)

  • "Unbeginnings: The Fragment as a Round Space". Forma Breve 4: O Fragmento. Ed. António Manuel Ferreira. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro, Centro de Linguas e Culturas. 2006

  • "Stumbling unto Grace – Invention and the Poetics of Imagination in Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach". Janus Head: Interdisciplinary Journal of Continental Philosophy, Literature, Phenomenological Psychology, and Art. Summer/Fall 9.1, 2006 pp. 63-72

  • "Portraits in Pain: the Psychology of Inspiration in Lynn Emanuel's poems". Proceedings of the 22nd International Literature and Psychology Conference. January 2006. Ed. Jonathan Goodwin. Córdoba, Spain

  • "A Mile in her Shoes: Culture Metamorphoses in Rebecca Miller's  Personal Velocity". Cultural Text Studies 1: An Introduction. Eds. Camelia Elias & Bent Sørensen. Aalborg:  Aalborg University Press. 2005

  • "Introduction". Transatlantic - Cultural Text Studies. (w/Andrea Birch). Aalborg: Aalborg University Press. 2006 pp. 5-17

  • "Transatlantic: New Perspectives" (w/Bent Sørensen). Aalborg: Aalborg University Press. 2006 pp. 19-20

  • "Passage-way to Culture and Writing - Literature of Transit: Codrescu, Federman, Hoffman, Simic". Transatlantic - Cultural Text Studies. Co-ed. with Andrea Birch. Aalborg: Aalborg UniversityS Press. 2006 pp. 55-77

  • “Some remarks on lexical fragments and Romanian echoes in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land”. (co-authored with Bent Sørensen). Caiet de Semiotica 16. Eds. Mirela Porchin and Nadia Oprocea. Timisoara: Editura Universitatii de Vest. 2005 pp. 129-136

  • "Clowns of Potentiality: Repetition and Resolution in Gertrude Stein and Emile Cioran". Cercles: Interdisciplinary Journal of Anglo-American Literature. Nr. 14. Style in the Making. Ed. Mireille Quivy and Philippe Romanski. October 2005

  • "Framing the Fragment: Epigraphic Writing in Gordon Lish and Jacques Derrida". Angles on Derrida - Jacques Derrida and Anglophone Literature. The Oxford Literary Review. Vol 25. Eds. Thomas Dutoit and Philippe Romanski. 2005

  • "Expropriated titles in Lynn Emanuel's Poetry of Impropriety". Untitled. Ed. Camelia Elias. Arbejdspapirer Nr. 37. Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies. Aalborg University 2005

  • "The Graveyard of Genre: David Markson's Postmodern Epitaphs". Reconstruction. Studies in Contemporary Culture. Ed. Davin Heckman and Matthew Wolf-Meyer. Winter 2004/2005. Vol 5.1

  • "Transmitting (to) Derrida". Five Faces of Derrida. Arbejdspapirer Nr. 35. Ed. Bent Sørensen. Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies. Aalborg University 2005

  • "Redundant Pens and Stupid Writing". Cercles: Interdisciplinary Journal of Anglophone Literature - Occasional Papers Series (2005) Nr.1. Ed. Mireille Quivy and Philippe Romanski. January 2005

  • "Aforismi e potenzialità: incontri". Incontri - Atti della Scuola Europea di Studi Comparati. Quaderni di Synapsis III a cura di Orsetta Innocenti. Cartografie dell'Immaginario. Saggi di letterature Comparate. Collana diretta da Remo Ceserani. Firenze: Le Monnier 2004

  • "Closet Fictions: Cynthia Ozick and Raymond Federman". Conference Proceedings. Aarhus: University of Aarhus (CD-ROM) 2004"

  • "Eliot's The Waste Land" (w/ Bent Sorensen). The Explicator. Heldref Publications Washington DC. Vol. 62. Nr. 2. Winter 2004

  • "Truth in the Margin, or Bloom's Idiosyncratic Reader". Respiro - Fast Forward Culture. Issue 11. Ed. Paul Doru Mugur. New York. June 2003

  • "Ten Theses on the Fragment". Respiro - Fast-Forward Culture. Issue 10. Ed. Paul Doru Mugur. New York. March 2003

  • "Fragmentary Epigrams: Marcel Bénabou's Authorial Mise-en-Scène". Literary Research - Recherche Littéraire. Journal of the International Comparative Literature Association. Vol. 19 nos. 37-38. Ed. Calin-Andrei Mihailescu. University of Western Ontario. 2002. pp. 183-201

  • "Narrative in a Nutshell: Epigrammatic Fragmentary Writing". From Homer to Hypertext: Studies in Narrative, Literature, Media. Ed. Anders Klinkby Madsen and Hans Balling. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark. 2002. pp. 153-165

  • "Wit as Final Aesthetic Imperative: the fragmentary and the incomplete in Schlegel, Blanchot, and Jabès". Aesthetic Experience and Interpretation. Uppsala: The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics (Nordisk Estetisk Tidskrift). Ed. Lars-Olof Åhlberg. Nr. 24. 2001. pp. 33-46

  • "Ekphrastic Plastic Fragments: Mark C. Taylor In and Out of Context". Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory. Ed. Carl Raschke. April 2001

  • "6 Epigraphs in Search of a Text". The Practice of Theory. theory@buffalo 5. Ed. Stacey Herbert. Buffalo, NY: State University of New York Press. 1999. pp. 28-57

REVIEW ESSAYS

DEBATE ARTICLES

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Former editor and webmaster of the faculty research papers, Dept. of Languages, Culture and Aesthetics, AAU

  • Member of the editorial board of the journal Lemmata

  • Member of the editorial board of the journal Janus Head: an interdisciplinary journal of philosophy, literature, phenomenological psychology and art

  • Member of ASA (American Studies Association)

  • Member of BCLA (British Comparative Literature Association)

LOCAL COMMUNITY

  • Nørresundby Daghøjskole; translator and interpreter for an adult education institution - Aalborg, 1995-1999

  • Aalborg Municipality; free-lance interpreter, Romanian and English, 1993-present day

CONTACT