Jack DiMidio is a PhD candidate (ABD) in German Literature with a graduate minor in Philosophy. He earned a B.S. in German from Penn State University with a special focus on Linguistics and second-language acquisition, receiving honors from the Paterno Fellows Program and the Schreyer Honors College. After graduation, Jack researched American Studies at the University of Heidelberg in Germany where he refined his German skills by working at a café in the “Altstadt”. His multiple interests in language-related fields, love of literature and philosophy and passion for teaching are what motivate him to pursue a career in academia. Now on a year-long fellowship from the Max Kade Foundation, he is writing his dissertation on secrecy in 19th-20th-century German literature and philosophy.

Research interests:

Literature: Heinrich von Kleist, Kafka, crime and detective fiction, modernism, and narrative theory.
Philosophy: Kant, Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, Derrida, and Deleuze; theories of secrecy, hospitality, ethics, recognition, epistemology, and information.