Erol M. Boran

Associate Professor of German, Teaching Stream

Contact info

erol.boran@utoronto.ca

Office
University of Toronto
Odette Hall 309
50 St. Joseph Street
Toronto, ON M5S 3L5

Phone: 416-926-2317
Secretary: 416-926-2324

Classes 2022-2023

GER194HF Our Vampires, Ourselves
GER322HF Kafka in Context
GER334HF Turkish-German Intersections
GER220HS Monsters, Murderers, Magic
GER401HS Advanced German 2
GER431HS The Power of Poetry

Office Hours

Friday 1-3pm (fall)
Monday 1-3pm (winter)

Book Release

***Book release on Dec. 27, 2022: Die Geschichte des türkisch-deutschen Theaters und Kabaretts***

Background

  • M.A. Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg 1996
  • Ph.D. Ohio State University 2004

Erol Boran offers courses on German literature, language and theater, and directs the German student theater, Theater DU. He is a recipient of the Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award (2019) and the Innovate German Award by the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German (2020). He recently completed the manuscript of a 1000-page German fantasy novel and is now in the process of revising it. His academic book, “The History of Turkish-German Theatre and Political Cabaret” will be released later this year with transcript Verlag.

For more information, see his personal website.

Signature Courses

  • GER194 “Our Vampires, Ourselves”
    This course explores the cultural significance of the vampire. The first part focuses on the Stoker-paradigm, the second part allows students to reflect on contemporary images.
  • GER220 “Monsters, Murderers and Magic”
    This course focuses on ominous aspects of German literature from the nightmares of the Romantic psyche to its evil offspring during the postmodern era.
  • GER334 “Art between Integration and Resistance”
    This course investigates contemporary German culture by paying attention to its ‘other’ voices. Topics vary, e.g., Turkish-German Stage Productions, Minor(ity) Perspectives, Turkish Migrations into German Pasts.
  • GER340 “German Theatre Production”
    This course addresses students who enjoy engaging with language creatively. It takes them through all the stages of a theatre production (reading, interpreting, contextualizing, rehearsing a German play) and culminates in public performances.
  • GER354 “A Tale of More Than Two Cities – Berlin between East and West”
    This course, taught in Berlin during the summer term, focuses on fictionalizations of the divided and reunited city and offers an exploration of walls, borders and boundaries in the physical, mental and symbolic realm.

Dissertation

Erol Boran: Eine Geschichte des türkisch-deutschen Theaters und politischen Kabaretts. (2004)

Article

Erol Boran “Faces of Contemporary Turkish-German Kabarett – Probing the New Millennium.” (Text & Presentation: Journal of the Comparative Drama Conference Vol. 25. April 2005: 172-86.)

Interviews

Book Reviews

  • Ruth Mandel: Cosmopolitan Anxieties – Turkish Challenges to Citizenship and Belonging in Germany (2008). Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies, Vol. 47-5, 2011: p. 691-92.
  • Hans Georg Wehlin (ed.): Türkei. Politik-Gesellschaft-Wirtschaft (2002). Journal of European Area Studies, 10/2, 2002.

Selected Lectures

  • From Provocateur to Personality: Serdar Somuncu’s “Arrival” in the Discourse on German National Memory (GSA Conference at Washington DC, 2015)
  • Turkish Migrations into the German Past (Post-Wall (Trans)National Conference at Memorial University St. Johns, May 2013 / GSA Conference at Milwaukee, 2012)
  • Charwoman, Bond Girl, Prostitute: Nursel Köse and the Challenge of Ethnic Boundaries (German Studies Conference, University of Texas at Austin, 2010)
  • Enter the Turk: Establishing Germany’s First Migrant Theater (German Studies Conference, University of Texas at Austin, 2008)
  • Identität-Ethnizität-Authentizität: Selbstdarstellung im türkisch-deutschen Kabarett (Invited Lecture at Waterloo Centre of German Studies, University of Waterloo, 2008)
  • Theatralischer Fremdsprachenunterricht: Die Deutschland-Seifenoper (CATG Annual Meeting, Saint Mary’s University at Halifax, 2007)

Theater DU: Past Productions

  • 2022: Der Struwwel, adapted from a gory children’s book by Heinrich Hoffmann
  • 2019: Der Komet, based on a pre-apocalyptical farce by August Wilhelm Iffland
  • 2016: Woyzeck, based on a fragment by Georg Büchner
  • 2016: Deutsch vom Fass, an anniversary production by Erol Boran
  • 2015: Hochwasser III, based on an absurd drama by Günther Grass
  • 2012: Drakul(j)a, a horror tale adapted by Erol Boran
  • 2010: Die Physiker, based on a grotesque play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt