Tobias Kuehne

Education: 

  • current: Ph.D. candidate. Advisor: Rüdiger Campe
  • 2016: M.Phil., Comparative European Literatures and Cultures (Distinction); University of Cambridge. M.Phil dissertation: “Paradox and Nietzsche’s Ethics of Danger” 
  • 2015: M.Phil., Germanic Languages and Literatures; Yale University
  • 2014: M.A., Germanic Languages and Literatures; Yale University
  • 2012: B.A., Mathematics & Philosophy (Distinction). Senior Thesis: “Zeno, Modern Mathematics, and the Completed Infinity Fallacy”

B.A., Literature (Intensive) (Distinction). Senior Thesis: “Homelessness and Hopelessness: Demonic Heroes, Godless Worlds, and Infinite Hope in Kafka’s Novels”
Yale University (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa)

Research Interests: 

  • Austro-German modernism, romantic literature, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, media theory, systems theory, epistemology, 19th and 20th-century German philosophy, logic and literature 

Prizes and Fellowships: 

  • W. Mellon Graduate Concentration Scholar, 2014/15
  • Bianca Maria Finzi-Contini Calabresi Prize (best Bachelor’s Thesis in Comparative Literature at Yale), 2012
  • Lothar Hausmann Prize (excellence in German Literature as part of the Literature major at Yale), 2012
  • Jacob Cooper Prize (best undergraduate essay in Greek philosophy at Yale), 2012
  • George A. Schrader, Jr. Prize (excellence in the Humanities at Yale), 2012 

Recent Publications:

  • “Paradox and Nietzsche’s Ethics of Danger.” The Journal of Nietzsche Studies (forthcoming).
  • “Nietzsche and the Rhetoric of Dialectics.” Journal of European Studies 48.2 (forthcoming, June 2018).
  • “Mathemes avant la lettre: Lacan’s Language Functions in ‘The Instance of the Letter’ as Triggers for Formalization.” Paragraph 40.2 (July 2017). 193-210.
  • “Schneller, genauer, genialer: Der Profispieler und die Zeitströme” in: Time to Play: Zeit und Computerspiele. eds. Stefan Höltgen, Jan Claas van Treeck. Glückstadt: Hülsbusch. February 2016.
  • “Karl Between Images: Kafka’s Practice of the Moving Image in Der Verschollene.” in: Mediamorphosis: Kafka and the Moving Image. eds. Shai Biederman, Ido Lewit. New York: Wallflower / Columbia University Press. February 2016.  
  • “Paradox and Kafka’s ‘Lawyerly Ruse’: A Systems Theoretical Study of the Letter to His Father.” Journal of The Kafka Society of America 37/38 (June/December 2013-14). 89-100.

Conferences, Symposia, Summer Schools:

  • Co-Organizer: “Thinking Bodies: Towards a Theory of Embodiment” - graduate student conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT. April 2017.
  • Co-Organizer: “Law and Fictional Discourse - Interdisciplinary Conference” Yale University, New Haven, CT. May 2015.
  • Paper presented: “Subterfuge through Games and Systems: Individual Tactics Supplied by Game Theory and Niklas Luhmann.” Symposium: “Sind Sie sicher? German Studies Symposium on Surveillance and (Post-)Privacy.” Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA. November 2014.
  • Paper presented: “K. im falschen Film: Kafka’s Media and Present Absence.” Panel: “Kafka and Cinema (2): Film Theory and Film Practice in Kafka’s Writings.” German Studies Association Annual Conference, Kansas City, MO. September 2014
  • Attendee: Cornell School of Criticism and Theory. Seminar: “Media Between Data and Experience.” taught by Prof. Mark B. N. Hansen. Ithaca, NY. June-July 2014. (Funded by Yale Summer Program Tuition Fellowship, Research & Travel Award in Grand Strategy)
  • Paper presented: “Kafka, Gödel, Guilt: Nach Logik die Sintflut.” Panel: “Letters as Literature.” Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, IL. January 2014