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Farhang Erfani Associate Professor Philosophy and Religion

Degrees
PhD, Villanova University
BA, University of the Pacific

Languages Spoken
Persian and French
Bio
I joined the AU community in 2005. My teaching and research are focused on democratic theory, globalization, exile, existentialism and aesthetics, particularly philosophy of film.
See Also
Philosophy Department
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Spring 2024

  • PHIL-235 Theories of Democracy

  • PHIL-423 Existentialism

Summer 2024

  • PHIL-235 Theories of Democracy

Fall 2024

  • PHIL-235 Theories of Democracy

  • PHIL-702 Graduate Seminar in Philosophy: Utopias/Political Imagination

Partnerships & Affiliations

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships

Research Associate at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa

Selected Publications

  • The Aesthetics of Autonomy: Ricoeur and Sartre on Emancipation, Authenticity and Selfhood (Lexington Books: Under contract).
  • “Ricoeur and the Pre-Political” (Co-authored with John Whitmire), Continental Philosophy Review, Vol. 41 (4), 2008.
  • “Fixing Marx with Machiavelli: Claude Lefort’s Democratic Turn”, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, Vol. 39 (2), May 2008, pp. 200-214. 
  • “Something New Under the Sun: Levinas and the Ethics of Social Imagination”, PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, Vol. 1 (Spring/Summer) 2007, pp. 46-66.
  • “Committed Perception: Merleau-Ponty, Carroll and Iranian Cinema,” Philosophy Today, Accepted (September 6, 2006).
  • “Sartre and Kierkegaard on The Aesthetics of Boredom,” Idealistic Studies, Volume 34(3), Fall 2004, pp. 303-317.
  • “Being-There and Being-From-Elsewhere: An Existential Analytic of Exile,” Reconstruction, Vol. 2 (3), Summer 2002, pp. 1-24.
  • “Exile and the Philosophical Challenge to Citizenship,” (Co-authored with John Whitmire) in Creativity in Exile, ed.