Peter townsend starr

Department of Comparative Literature pstarr@usc.edu

University of Southern California (213) 740-3170

Los Angeles, CA 90089-0353

Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, Comparative Literature, 1985.

M.A., The Johns Hopkins University, French, 1982.

A.B. with Distinction, Stanford University, Humanities Special Programs, 1978.

Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, 2005-.

Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, 1992-2005.

Associate Professor of French, University of Southern California, 1991-1992.

Mellon Faculty Fellow, Harvard University, 1988-1989.

Assistant Professor of French, University of Southern California, 1985-1991.

Dean (interim), USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, 2006-2007.

Dean of Undergraduate Programs, USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, 2005-2006.

Member, Academic Senate Executive Board, 2003-2005. Elected Academic Vice-President (declined for deanship)

Acting Chair, Department of French & Italian, Fall 2002, Fall 2003.

President, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Faculty Council, 1998-1999.

Chair, Department of Comparative Literature, 1994-1997, 1998-2001.
Honors:

Center for Excellence in Teaching Faculty Fellow, University of Southern California, 2005-2008.

Simpson Research Grant in the Humanities, University of Southern California, 1998.

N.E.H. Summer Stipend, 1988.

Faculty Research and Innovation Fund, University of Southern California, 1988.

French Government Grant, 1984-1985.

Camargo Foundation Grant, Autumn 1984.

Gilman Teaching Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 1979-1981, 1983.

Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford University, 1978.
Articles:

“The Uses of Confusion: Lefebvre’s Commune,” Contemporary French Civilization 29:1 (2004), 67-84.

“‘Rien n’est Tout’: Lacan and the Legacy of May ’68,” Esprit Créateur 41:1 (2001), 34-42.

“The Tragic Ear of the Intellectual: Lacan,” Tympanum 1 (July 1998) http://www.usc.edu/dept/comp-lit/tympanum/1/starr.html.

“Hysterical Communities: Reflections on Our fin de siècle,” Esprit Créateur 32:4 (1992),

83-92.

“Science and Confusion: On Flaubert's Temptation,” in Gustave Flaubert: Modern Critical Views, ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1989, 199-218. [Reprinted from MLN 99:5 (1984).]

“Salammbô: the Politics of an Ending,” French Forum 10:1 (1985), 40-56.
Translation:

“An Idea of Flaubert: ‘Plato's Letter,’” by Jacques Derrida, in Psyche: Inventions of the Other, Volume 1, ed. Peggy Kamuf and Elizabeth Rottenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007, 299-317. [Reprinted from MLN 99:4 (1984).]

“Enough Paranoia for Us All,” Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2004: B13.

“We the Paranoid: Writing the Multimedia ‘Book’,” Pomona College, November 2008.

“The Filmic Commune,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Arizona), October 2003.

“The Uses of Confusion: Lefebvre’s Commune,” 20^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Illinois-Urbana), March 2003.

“The Uses of Confusion: Revolutionary Violence and Significant Form,” Keynote Address, Stanford-Berkeley Graduate Student Conference in French and Francophone Studies, March 2003.

“The Commune and the Right to Confusion,” MLA (Washington, DC), December 2000.

“Rites of Confusion: Zola’s La Débâcle,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Illinois-Urbana), October 2000.

“‘Rien n’est Tout’: Lacan and the Legacy of May ’68,” 20^th-Century French Studies Colloquium, April 2000.

“A Mighty Odd Organism,” ALL (UCLA), March 1999.

“Four Theses on the Paranoia Industry,” MLA (San Francisco), December 1998; ACLA (Puerto Vallarta), April 1997.

“The President Vanishes,” APCS (Emory), November 1998.

“Representing Cyberspace,” ACLA (Texas-Austin), March 1998.

“Of Democracy and Masochism: Disavowal in Zola's Bonheur,” UC-Irvine, January 1995; 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (UC-Santa Barbara), October 1994.

“Counting Crows: Clouzot and Paranoid Style,” 20^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Stanford), March 1995.

“The Terrors of Theory,” Columbia University, Terror and Literature Colloquium, April 1993.

“Hysterical Communities: Reflections on our fin de siècle,” MLA (New York), December 1992.

“The Fool and the Knave,” IAPL (UC-Berkeley), April 1992.

“The Revolutionary Double-Bind: Cultural Politics after May '68,” MLA (San Francisco), December 1991.

“The Tragic Ear of the Intellectuals,” 20^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Iowa), April 1990.

“Explosive Hysterics: The Feminist Manifestoes of Hélène Cixous,” 20^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Columbia), April 1989.

“The Theoretical Legacy of May '68,” Harvard University, December 1988.

“The Socio-Semiotic Critique of Jean Baudrillard,” Harvard University, December 1988.

“Chance Encounters,” MLA (San Francisco), December 1987.

“My Mother the Republic: ‘Henri Beyle, 1789,’” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Northwestern), October 1987.

“On the Logic of Revolt,” 20^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Duke), March 1987.

“Ideology and Horsemanship: the Case of Lucien Leuwen,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Nebraska), October 1986.

“Ideology and Textual Work: a Reply to Philippe Hamon,” ISISSS (Northwestern), July 1986.

“The Party of Movement: Style and (Post-)Liberal Desire in Bouvard et Pécuchet,” University of Pennsylvania, April 1986. [Drafts of the preceding paper were delivered at USC, Reed and Connecticut Colleges, and the Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France).]

“Salammbô: the Politics of an Ending,” Princeton University, February 1984.
Panel Activities:

Panelist, “The Challenges of Fair Use,” Fair Use and the Future of the Commons Symposium (USC), October 2008.

Chair, “Geographies and Geopolitics of Empire,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Vanderbilt), October 2008.

Chair, “L’Année Hugo,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Ohio State), October 2002.

Chair, “Flaubertiana,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Western Ontario), October 1999.

Organizer and Chair, “’Post-Oedipal’ Paranoia,” APCS (Emory), November 1998.

Chair, “Traumas Individual and Collective,” APCS (George Washington), October 1996.

Chair, “Politicized Psychoanalysis,” APCS (George Washington), October 1995.

Chair, “Interdiction,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (SUNY Binghamton), October 1992.

Organizer and Chair, “Reading Around May '68,” Special Session, MLA (San Francisco), December 1991.

Organizer and Chair, “The Impact of Tel Quel,” Special Session, MLA (New Orleans), December 1988.

Chair, “Taxonomies,” 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium (Michigan), October 1988.

Consultant Reader: Columbia University Press, Stanford University Press, University of

Minnesota Press, University of Nebraska Press, McGill-Queens University Press, Yale University Press, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Games and Culture, 19^th-Century French Studies Colloquium, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Appointment/Promotion Referee: List on request

Co-organizer (with H. Schor), “Realisms” Research Group, Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Initiative, USC, 2000-2001.

Co-organizer, USC symposia on “Psychoanalysis and Difference” (2001), “Vision Language” (2000), “Mass: Event, Materiality, Crowds” (1999), “New Babel” (1998), “Thinking Video” (1991).

Member, Josephine de Kármán Fellowship Committee, 1998-.

MLA Delegate on Politics and the Profession, 1990-1992.

Participant, International Summer Institute for Semiotic and Structural Studies, July 1986.

Editorial Assistant, MLN, Comparative Literature number, 1980-1981.

Poetry Editor, Realms of Light, photographs by Ernst Haas, New York: Walker & Co., 1978.
Areas of Interest:

19th-Century French Literature

20th-Century Literature and Culture: U.S., France, Germany

The Psychoanalysis of Culture

Critical Theory

Politics and the Novel

French:

Révolutions III (graduate)

Raison/Déraison I (graduate)

Seminar in 19th-Century French Literature: Littérature et confusion (graduate)

Seminar in 19th-Century French Literature: Le lien social (graduate)

Seminar in 19th-Century French Literature: Fantasme, fétishisme, idéologie (graduate)

L'intellectuel en France (graduate)

Stylistique et analyse textuelle (graduate)

Author Seminar: Stendhal (graduate)

Seminar in 19th-Century French Literature: Roman et idéologie (graduate)

French Cinema and Society

Contemporary French Theory

Colloquium: La femme fantastique

Colloquium: Paris littéraire

Readings in 19th-Century French Literature

Readings in 18th-Century French Literature

Writing About Literature

French Literature in Translation

Grammaire et composition
Comparative Literature:

Seminar in Literature and Social Thought (graduate)

Readings in 20th-Century Literature: Paranoid Cultures, Paranoid Styles (graduate)

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism and Theory (graduate)

Realism and Naturalism (graduate)

Theory and Methods of Comparative Literature (graduate)

Psychoanalysis and the Arts

Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature

Seminar in Literary Criticism

Realist Fiction: Realism and its Others

Politics and the Novel (with H. Schor)
Thematic Option Honors Program:

Symbols and Structures: The Pleasures (and Perils) of Interpretation

Reality and Its Others

Plots
Microseminar:

Paranoid Culture

Politics and Literary Modernity (graduate)

Director of Graduate Studies, Comparative Literature, 2004-2005, 2008-.

Director of Graduate Studies, French, 1991-1994.

Honors Program Coordinator, French, 2003-2004.

Screening Exam Coordinator, Comparative Literature, 2000-2001.

Member, Graduate Studies Committee, Comparative Literature, 1994-1997, 1998-2001, 2004-2005, 2008-.

Member, Graduate Studies Committee, French, 1991-1994, 2002-2004.

Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Comparative Literature, 1989-1991, 1993-1997, 1998-2001.

Chair, Comparative Literature Department Status Committee, 1996-1997.

Member, Chair’s Advisory Committee, Comparative Literature, 2002-2004.

Member, Chair Search Committee, French & Italian, 2004.

Member, Chair Search Committee, Comparative Literature, 2002.

Member, Faculty Review Committee, Comparative Literature, 2004.

Member, Faculty Review Committee, French & Italian, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2008.

Member, Search Committee, French: 1985-1989, 1992-1993 (Chair), 1999-2000, 2003-2004; French and Comparative Literature: 1995-1999; East Asian and Comparative Literature 1996-1997; Spanish and Comparative Literature 1998-1999; Comparative Literature and Philosophy, 2000-2001 (Chair); French and Comparative Literature, 2003-2004.

Panelist, “Breadth with Depth,” WASC Site Visit, 2008.

Member, Deans Advisory Committee for the Provost’s Arts and Humanities Initiative, 2005-2007.

Chair, University General Education Committee, 2005-2006.

Member, University Curriculum Committee, 2005-2006.

Member Ex Officio, University Committee on Academic Policies and Procedures, 2005-2006.

Member, WASC Accreditation Steering Committee, 2005-2007.

Member, Phi Beta Kappa Executive Committee, 1998-2002.

Commencement Marshal, 1997, 1999-2000.

Member, University Writing Committee, 1996-1997.
Academic Senate Liaison on Faculty Protection Issues, 2004-2005.

Member At Large, Academic Senate Executive Board, 2003-2005.

Member, Academic Senate, 1986-8, 1998-1999, 2002-2005.

Member, Academic Senate Distinguished Faculty Service Award Committee, 2004.

Member, Academic Senate Nominating Committee, 1998-1999.

Member, Academic Senate Committee on Medical School Contracts, 1999.

Chair, Committee on Information Services Strategic Planning Task Force on

Interdisciplinary Centers, 2002.

Chair, Doheny Memorial Library Task Force, 2002.

Chair, VonKleinsmid Library Task Force, 2000.

Chair, Library Services and Resources Task Force, 1999-2000.

Member, Committee on Information Services, 1999-2001, 2002-2003.

Member, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Library Committee, 2001.

Member, New Doheny Committee, 1998-1999.

Member, Public Services Core Leadership Group, 1998-1999.

Member, Ad Hoc Committee on Special Subject Libraries, 1999.
Member, USC College Humanities Personnel Committee, 2008-.

USC College Co-Chair, USC Good Neighbors Campaign, 2003-2005, 2008-.

Member, USC College General Education Review Committee, 2004-2005.

Member, USC College Distinguished Faculty Service Award Committee, 2004.

Member, USC College Chairs’ Compensation Committee, 2004.

Member, USC College Signature Committee, 2004.

Member, USC College Strategic Planning Committee, 2001.

Member, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Budget and Planning Committee, 1996-1997, 1998-1999.

Member, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Humanities Initiative Committee, 1998-1999.

Member, Thematic Option Honors Program Advisory Board, 1998-2001.

Chair, Committee on Graduate Study in Literature and Culture, 1995-1996.

Member, Ad Hoc Committee on Donor-Restricted Scholarships, 1996-1997.

Member, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences General Education Working Group, 1995.

Member, Hewlitt Foundation Awards Committee, 1995.

Member, ZRIF Awards Committee, 1995.

Member, NEH Summer Stipends Committee, 1995, 1996.

Member, Cultural Studies Organizing Committee, 1994-1996.

Member, SWMS Coordinating Committee, 1993-1994.

Member, Feuchtwanger Awards Committee, 1993.

Member, Literary Theory Curriculum Organizing Committee, 1991-1993.

Member, General Education Subcommittee on Literature and the Arts, 1989-1990.

Member, Humanities Budget Committee, 1985-1988, 1989-1990.

Member, Faculty Council Faculty Caucus, 1998-1999.

Organizer, College Research Forum, 1998-1999.
Junior Faculty Mentor: M. Zubiaurre (2002-2005), A. Szabari (2004- )

CET Mentor to Graduate Students: C. A. Platt (2007-2008), O. Sabo (2008-)

Chair, Dissertation Committee: A. Class (French, 2000), P. Chandler (French, 1992), C. Coffman (Comp. Lit., 2001), K. Hackel (Comp. Lit., 2003), S. Jones (French), M. Suner (co-chair, Comp. Lit., 2006)

Dissertation Committee: E. Archer (English), V. Atchity (Comp. Lit., 1998), M. Blackie (English, 2004), M. d'Andrea (Comp. Lit., 1998), B. Boyer (French), J. Boutouba (French, 2004), O. Ceren (Communication), G. DeRosa (East Asian, 2003), C. Diepenbrock (English), H. Franks (Comp. Lit., 1999), P. Franzek (English, 1995), L. Hodgson (English), K. Holderbaum (French, 1995), D. Kammerman (Comp. Lit., 2005), M. Hyatt (Comp. Lit., 2006), A. Khorev (Comp. Lit., 2000), J. Langham (English, 2004), S. Meyer (German), Y. Minkova (Slavic, 2006), P. Parker (English), C. Peterson (Comp. Lit., 2002), S. Ross (English), S. Sadagopan (French, 2002), N. Sanders (English, 1992), B. Stanchniewicz (English)

Honors Thesis Advisor: I. Bogost (Comp. Lit., 1998), S. Lacour (French, 2004), C. Nettleton (French, 2003)

French Reading Examiner: M. Delle LeBeau (Slavic, 2004), L. Vassilieva (Slavic, 2004)