Dr. Thomas Fuhr received his doctorate in Transcultural German Studies from the University of Arizona, and he currently serves as Lecturer and Language Program Director of the German Studies Department. His research interests include political authorship, environmental humanities, translation, and he is seeking to explore ways in which expressions of belonging to land in literature and music can inform second language teaching. He has published several articles on contemporary literature that engages in political discourses (including one on the topic of critical dystopia), and he co-translated an essay on food. In his dissertation entitled “Eternal Return? Heimat in Contemporary German Literature,” Dr. Fuhr investigated the role that the concept of Heimat plays in Germany’s increasingly pluralistic society, by dissecting how literary authors reconfigured ideas of home, belonging, and identity in novels published between 2014-2018. His doctoral advisors were Assistant Professor Dr. Joela Jacobs (Tucson) and PD Dr. Leonhard Herrmann (Leipzig) as well as Professors David Gramling and Chris Cokinos.
Before coming to the USA from Germany, Fuhr studied in Mainz and Lisbon, and he has an M.A. in Ethnology, Pedagogy, and Spanish Philology. At the University of Arizona, Dr. Fuhr has taught German language classes at all levels as well as General Education courses. In the academic year 2020-2021, Thomas held the position of Assistant Language Program Director of the German Department, he is part of the 2017-2018 University Fellows Program cohort, and has received a Russel J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Dr. Fuhr has contributed a chapter to the edited volume Juli Zeh: A Critical Companion, published with De Gruyter in September 2024.