Jan is a translator and critic of literature written in Afrikaans, Dutch, English, and French. He holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell University. His academic work focuses on translation theory, critical contemporaneity, and world literature. He is the editor of Translation: Crafts, Contexts, Consequences (Cambridge University Press 2022). And he is currently working on a monograph entitled World Literature for the Times: How Translations and Adaptations Create Contemporaneity. 

Research interests

• World Literature & Theories of World
• Literary Translation & Translation Theory
• Contemporary French & Francophone Literature
• African Literature (especially Francophone and South African)
• Global Anglophone Literature (including, as a matter of axiomatic principle, literature translated into English)