Erol M. Boran

Associate Chair, Undergraduate Studies
Associate Professor of German, Teaching Stream

Contact info

erol.boran@utoronto.ca
For undergraduate matters: german.undergrad@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

Office Hours

Fall 2021: Mon & Wed 1-2
Winter 2022: Tue 1-3

Classes 2021-2022

GER400HF Advanced German I
GER194HS Our Vampires, Ourselves
GER334HF Transnational Literatures
GER340HS German Theatre Production

Background

Ph.D. Ohio State University 2004

Erol Boran received his PhD from the Ohio State University with a dissertation on the history of Turkish-German theater and political cabaret. He joined UofT in 2006 and teaches courses on German literature, language and theater, and directs the German student theater, Theater DU. He is a recent recipient of the Faculty of Arts and Science Outstanding Teaching Award and the Innovate German Award by the Canadian Association of University Teachers of German. Two of his most popular courses are the Theatre Production Course, which was featured in the SoGerman Blog in 2018, and his first-year seminar entitled Our Vampires, Ourselves, featured in the UofT Bulletin in 2012. He recently completed a German fantasy novel.

Signature Courses

  • GER 150 “How German Is It?”
    Students assume the role of culture detectives by exploring various periods of German cultural history, following clues, collecting evidence and drawing daring conclusions.
  • GER 199 “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 present contemporary images.
  • GER 199 “Turks, Jews and Other Germans”
    This course traces German-Jewish-Turkish relations from the Middle Ages to the Present. The focus is on identity formation and power relations.
  • GER 220 “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.
  • GER 334 “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.
  • GER 340 “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.
  • GER 354 “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

  • 2019: Der Komet, based on an 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, 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

Recent Teaching Award