Jan Balakian, Ph.D.
Professor of English, Kean University, Union, NJ
Dr. Balakian teaches literature from the Greeks to the present, with a specialization in American drama.
She also teaches a course on the Armenian Genocide in Kean's graduate programon Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Most of all, Professor Balakian loves discussing literature and life with students over cups of tea in the office.
Dr. Balakian thanks her great teachers from Stillman School in Tenafly to Jack Wheatcroft at Bucknell, to the generosity of Brown and Cornell
Ph.D., Cornell University, Heermans-McCalmon Playwriting Prize
M.A.T., Brown University
B.A. cum laude with Honors in English, Bucknell University, (William Bucknell Prize for woman demonstrating excellence in writing; Julia Fonville Smith Award for Fiction)
Contact: JBalakia@Kean.edu
About
Jan Balakian, professor of English at Kean University in New Jersey, teaches and writes about literature, specializing in American drama. Kroyt-Brandt Productions made her first screenplay, Everyone's Depressed, about college students and mental health, into a film. Her essays about American drama appear in the Cambridge Companion series, and Applause Books published her cultural studies book about the plays of Wendy Wasserstein. She also happens to be a member…..(click here to read full article)
Read the New York Times article "Professor Sees Her Life Become a Movie." Everyone's Depressed is Jan Balakian's play which explores the lives of young people, mental health, and literature.
Recent Publications in 2020
Journal Article: "Who's Depressed in Our Town," The Thornton Wilder Journal.
Full-Length play: DREAMS ON FIRE about college students, mental health, the Armenian Genocide & epigenetics, submitted to contests and grants
Chapter in collection: "Teaching All My Sons Across the Curriculum," Arthur Miller for the Twenty-First Century, Palgrave.
Other Notable Work
Hosted the first international conference at Kean, “Why American Plays Matter,” funded by the NJ Council for the Humanities.