Mina Khavandi is completing a joint PhD in the French Department and the Cinema Studies Department at Rutgers. She holds an M.A. in French from Rutgers University, and a B.A in French Literature, Language, and Culture from University of Tehran.

Having worked under the supreme mentorship of Alan Williams as her advisor, she is currently completing her dissertation focusing on the rhetorical conceptualizations of femininity in French-speaking cinema emerging mainly from the 1970s France.

Areas of research: French cinema studies, Women & Gender studies, writing the self, women writers, feminist film theories, practice of poeticism in film, French theater, intersections between art and literature, music and literature, performance studies, visual art studies.

Mina published her first book, Stenographer: Poems, in Fall 2023, in which she honors the late Alan Williams.

Mina has taught at University of Connecticut where she designed and taught French Film & Media Studies courses as well as French Culture courses and French Language courses. (2022-2023)

2021-2022 fellow in the PreDoctoral Leadership Development Academy at Rutgers.

Recipient of the Lockwood Prize for Distinguished Accomplishments in Teaching in the French Department (June 2021)

French Department ambassador at La Maison Française at Rutgers. (2020-2021)

Beyond poetry, Mina is passionate about performing arts such as theater and opera and reflects often on the question of body engagement in literature and cinema.

Selected conference presentations and talks:

Mina is a regular soprano singer in the Rutgers University Choir, one of the four main ensembles at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers. Mina contributes further to Rutgers University Choir as language and pronunciation coach for pieces sung in French and Farsi.

Selected performances:

Film festivals: Mina served as Film Juror at the Burlington County Short Film Festival (2022)

Professional affiliations: CFFS, MLA, WIF, NeMLA, SCMS, AATF