Catalina Florina Florescu, PhD

Human, and you...?

New York City Metropolitan Area

About

I was born in the Balkans and came here at 23. I am what they call a hyphenated individual, but that's incomplete (and I enjoy that greatly). I earned my Bachelor’s from U of Bucharest, Romanian Literature (major), American Literature (minor); my Master’s and PhD from Purdue University (specializations: comparative theatre & medical humanities). At Pace, I teach undergraduate, honors, interdisciplinary courses in theater, literature, cinema, and writing. At Stevens, I teach to graduate students "Writing and Speaking for Academic Purposes." I am a published author: Transacting Sites of the Liminal Bodily Spaces (literary criticism; medical humanities); Disjointed Perspectives on Motherhood (mothers in literature & motion picture; feminist criticism); Of Silences (philosophy; theater; art). Transnational Narratives in Englishes of Exile (cultural and literary criticism; immigration; Englishes and plurality). The Night I Burned My Origami Skin (poems); The Rebelled Body Plays (theater); Female Playwrights and Applied Intersectionality (Romanian theater; equity). In Romanian, Inventing Me/Exercitii de retrait, Teatru, & Corp de teatru. "Mia" premiered at HERE: Arts Center (2021). "Suicidal Dog and Laika" had its world premiere with support from RCINYC and "Snowdrops and Chlorine" with a grant from AFCN. "Moss" debuted during the New York Festival of short plays. "Cliffhanger" was part of Women in Theater festival. "Unpack" premiered in 2021 in Los Angeles. "Femeia care tot uita sa se nasca" was a finalist for UNITER's Play of the Year competition. "La tiza" was read professionally during a festival in Alaska. "Woman, a Choreopoem (or, That Time when Michelle Obama & I Had Da Hong Pao Tea)" debuted at Barons Court Theatre in London, UK. (More on my CV.) Staging Breast Cancer Trilogy is the world's first on the topic of cancer. (I DID IT, Mom! 💕) https://lccn.loc.gov/2021392152 I presented as a guest speaker at New York University, Harvard, Sorbonne, Columbia, University of Bucharest, etc. I have been awarded several grants. My full CV can be downloaded here: https://www.catalinaflorescu.com/ or below (in documents). M-am născut într-o zi de duminică. Sunt soarele care aduce lumină şi caldură. ☀️ PS: If I write to you "bluntly," that may not be exactly the case, but a consequence of having a brain that is complex on account of having a disability. Do not judge. This "book" has loose covers that dissolve whenever I please.

Experience

  • Pace University (12 yrs 6 mos)
    • Educator
      Aug 2014 - Present · 11 yrs 11 mos

    • Professor
      2014 - Present · 12 yrs 6 mos

    • Summer Grants
      2017 - 2017 · Less than a year

  • Faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology
    2015 - Present · 11 yrs 6 mos

    ELC 71, 81: “Writing and Speaking for Academic Purpose” (graduate courses) CAL 103: “Freshman Writing & Communication” HLI 220: “Images of Science in Literature” HLI 318: “Caribbean Literature and Culture” HLI 413: “Literature by Women in English from 14th c until Today”

  • New Play Development Curator at Jersey City Theater Company
    2019 - Apr 2025 · 6 yrs 4 mos

    In this role, I search those voices that match our need to understand the profound role we have as humans beings to love, protect, and respect everybody. Contact me with your bold plays so that together we can introduce your voice to our diverse and warm community at JCTC. While topics are open to whatever your heart and mind desire, I hope the approach varies and/or includes immersive techniques, video projections, and other techniques that subject the public to become active and thus return theater to being an active amphitheater of polyphonic voices. https://www.jctcenter.org/about/

  • Professor at Wagner College
    2012 - 2016 · 4 yrs

    Developed and taught courses about American Drama, Non-Western Women's Literature, and Writing Seminars. Improved students' thinking and pre-writing skills. Helped them develop their interdisciplinary thinking.