Orban, Clara 1960- (Clara Elizabeth Orban)

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Orban, Clara 1960- (Clara Elizabeth Orban)

PERSONAL:

Born January 3, 1960, in Teaneck, NJ; daughter of Denes (a physician) and Giuliana (a teacher) Orban; married Elliot Weisenberg, June 16, 1985. Education: University of Chicago, B.A. (Italian and French), 1981, Ph.D., 1990; University of Geneva, B.A. (English), 1983, M.A. (French), 1984, M.A. (Italian), 1985. Hobbies and other interests: Travel, reading, skiing, fishing, knitting, sewing.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Modern Languages, DePaul University, 802 W. Belden, Chicago, IL 60614.

CAREER:

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, lecturer, 1985-89, instructor in French, 1989-90, resident supervisor of program in Lisieux, France, 1988; DePaul University, Chicago, IL, began as associate professor, became professor of French and Italian, 1996—, director of Honors Program and member of executive council of Humanities Center, 1998-2006, and member of Faculty Council. Teacher of Italian at Roman Catholic schools in Chicago, 1985-87; Motorola Corp., French teacher, 1986; Roosevelt University, instructor, 1987; Latin School of Chicago, instructor, 1988; University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, lecturer, 1990. National Commission on French for Business and Economic Purposes, member, 1994-98; Italian Cultural Institute, member of board of directors of Italidea, 1995-98; member of board of directors of Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and IMPACT-Chicago, 2005—.

MEMBER:

International Association of Word and Image Studies, Modern Language Association of America, American Association of Teachers of French, American Association of Teachers of Italian, American Association of Italian Studies, Chicago Narrative Group, Golden Key.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Angela and Anne V. Marinelli fellow, National Italian-American Foundation, 1988; Gilbert Chinard Pedagogical Prize, Institut Français de Washington, 1990, for the article "A Working Model for Videocamera Use in the Foreign Language Classroom"; grant from Illinois Humanities Council, 1993; grants for France, Services Culturels Français de l'Ambassade de France, Center for International Business Education and Research, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all 1997.

WRITINGS:

Au travail! (French workbook), McGraw-Hill (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

(Translator from French) Hervé Guibert, Cytomegalovirus: A Hospitalization Diary (novel), University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1995.

The Culture of Fragments: Words and Images in Futurism and Surrealism, Editions Rodopi (Atlanta, GA), 1997.

Surrealist Case Studies: Literature, the Arts, and Medicine, University Press of the South (New Orleans, LA), 2001.

Terra Firma (novel), Florida Academic Press (Gainesville, FL), 2006.

Contributor to books, including Mothers of Invention: Critical Studies on Women in Italian Culture and Society during Fascism, edited by Robin Pickering-Iazzi, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1995. Contributor to periodicals, including Text and Visuality, Literature and Medicine, Italica, French Review, and VIA: Voices of Italian Americana.

SIDELIGHTS:

Clara Orban once told CA: "As for my nonfiction work, I'm most intrigued by questions of connections. How do words and images work together? Are literature and medicine really so far apart? I also like to explore issues of culture clash in media.

"As for my fiction, Terra Firma, I have a story to tell of my family and how history shapes us all. My next fiction project explores solitude in the modern world."