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, world literature, digital humanities, and literary prehistories of artificial intelligence. He is the editor of Translation: Crafts, Contexts, Consequences (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and the author of Jig (Sylph Editions, 2026).

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)
• Digital Humanities (with a particular interest in literary figurations of AI)