Hello!
I'm Jake van der Kolk. I'm a Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. I earned my doctoral degree in German Literature and Culture in 2017. My academic interests include aesthetic theory, narratology, the early avant-garde, Digital Humanities, and pedagogical technologies. My dissertation examined how the stream-of-consciousness novel Der Tod des Vergil (The Death of Virgil, 1945) by Austrian author Hermann Broch tries to mess with its readers in ways which efface both itself as well as our readerly habits.
I first studied the German language as an undergraduate, and was hooked instantly. Two years after taking my first language course, I had studied in Germany, added German as a second degree, and started my first graduate course on the topic.
I continued my studies at Penn State, carrying on my passion for German literature and culture alongside my other passion, philosophy. I have also spent a lot of time in Germany, including stints at Philipps-Universität Marburg and Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.
I greatly enjoy teaching the German language, history, and culture in both online and classroom settings, and have worked at a diverse variety of institutions including Penn State, Susquehanna University, Kalamazoo College, and Western Michigan University. I also taught English language, culture, and academic practices at the Language Center at Philipps-Universität Marburg, and have translated academic works for presentation and publication.
In my free time, I dabble in open source computing, Linux, and some coding and markup programming.
Thanks for stopping by,
Jake