Dr. Gregor Thuswaldner

                            Associate Professor of German

                                               Chair, Department of Foreign Languages & Linguistics

                                               Fellow, Center for Christian Studies

                                               Gordon College

                                               255 Grapevine Road

                                               Wenham, MA 01984

                                               Tel. (978) 867 4350

                                               Fax. (978) 867 4671

                                               Click here to email Dr. Thuswaldner

Gregor Thuswaldner is Associate Professor of German and Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, as well as a Fellow in the Center for Christian Studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts . A native of Salzburg, Austria, he studied German and English at the University of Salzburg, Bowling Green State University, the University of Vienna (Mag. phil.) and received his Ph.D. in Germanic Languages from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

For six summers he (co)organized and co-directed the "German Summer in Sewanee" language immersion seminar at the University of the South, Sewanee, TN.  In 2005 he was a visiting scholar for the "Rutgers University in Berlin" summer program and in the summer of 2008 he was a visiting professor at Salzburg College in Salzburg, Austria. At Gordon College, he heads the German program and co-directs the new Linguistics major and minor program. In 2006, Dr. Thuswaldner received Gordon's Distinguished Junior Faculty Award.

Dr. Thuswaldner has presented numerous papers at national and international conferences in the US and in Europe and has published articles on literary theory, linguistics, German and Austrian literature, culture, politics, art, and religion. In 2006 he co-organized an international cultural studies conference at Gordon College partially funded by the Lily Endowment Inc. featuring Dr. Cornel West (Princeton University) as keynote speaker. Dr. Thuswaldner received grants from Gordon College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Salzburg, the Modern Language Association, and the American Academy of Religion.

He is the co-editor of the essay collection on Der untote Gott: Religion und Ästhetik in deutscher und österreichischer Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts (The Undead God: Aesthetics and Religion in Twentieth-Century German and Austrian Culture) (Böhlau, 2007). Although religious themes and motifs are abundant in 20th-century German and Austrian literature and culture, this essay collection is the first attempt to explore these intersections. The book features a goup of international scholars — among them literature professors from Duke University, Emory University, Baylor University, Calvin College, the University of Florida and Humboldt University of Berlin —who investigate manifestations and negotiations of religious conflicts in 20th-century German and Austrian literary texts and cultural products.

Dr. Thuswaldner's latest book is the essay collection Derrida und danach? Literaturtheoretische Diskurse der Gegenwart (Derrida and Thereafter? Essays on Contemporary Liiterary Theory (Deutscher Universitätsverlag/VS Research, 2008). Derrida und danach? addresses the somewhat sceptical reception of Derrida's oeuvre in the German speaking world and highlights the contribution Derrida made to the field of literary theory. The book also investigates the current state of literary theory in Germany and North America. The authors of this essay collection teach at European and North American institutions, such as the University of Göttingen, University of Koblenz-Landau, University of Vienna, University of North Dakota and Trinity Western University.

Dr. Thuswaldner's current book projects focus on Thomas Bernhard's critique of Austria and on manifestations of images of Christ in contemporary cultures. In the fall of 2008, Dr. Thuswaldner will be on sabbatical.