Dr. Thomas Kovach came to The University of Arizona in the fall of 1994 to head the Department of German Studies. He was formerly Chair of the Department of German and Russian at the University of Alabama, and before that he had an appointment in German and Comparative Literature in the Department of Languages and Literature of the University of Utah. He received his B.A. in German Literature from Columbia University, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with a German emphasis from Princeton University. His research interests range widely over German and Comparative Literature from the mid-eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. He is the author of Hofmannsthal and Symbolism: Art and Life in the Work of a Modern Poet (Berne/Frankfurt/New York: Peter Lang Verlag, 1985), the editor of A Companion to the Works of Hugo von Hofmannsthal (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2002), and the co-translator of Ninety-Two Poems and Hymns by Yehuda Halevi by Franz Rosenzweig (Albany: SUNY Press, 2000); he has also published a number of articles on Rilke, Hofmannsthal, and other writers. His current research projects include an investigation of the presence of music in the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, and an examination of Martin Walser’s “Friedenspreisrede” in light of the Mitscherlich’s paradigm of “Unfähighkeit zu trauern.” At the University of Arizona, his main focus has been in the area of German-Jewish studies. He has introduced courses on German-Jewish Writers and on the representation of Jews in German texts, and has given several public presentations and written essays on the subject of Jewish assimilation in the German-speaking world and the US. He is a member of the Southwest Psychoanalytic Society, for which he has given a presentation and helped organize several others. Outside the office, music is his big passion; he plays chamber music (piano and flute) and sings in choruses. His other hobbies include hiking and movies. Visit Dr. Kovach's personal homepage. Return to UA German Studies Homepage Last updated: 10/15/07 |