Professor

Director, Max Kade Center of European and German Studies


PhD | SUNY Buffalo
MA, M.A.h.c., | SUNY Buffalo


John McCarthy is Professor of German & Comparative Literature and Director of the Max Kade Center for European and German Studies. Previously, he served as Director of Graduate Studies in German (1991-92, 1994-98, 2003-2005) and as Director of Undergraduate Studies (1999-2003). He has held visiting professorships at Swarthmore College, the Universität München, and at Rutgers University as the Charlotte M. Craig Visiting Professor and received various fellowships (Fulbright, DAAD, APS, DFG) and is the recipient of the Goethe Institute/AATG Certificate of Merit.

McCarthy teaches courses on the eighteenth century (European and German Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, Weimar Classicism, Goethe's Faust), European literature of self discovery, Nietzsche and crisis consciousness, science and literature (chaos and complexity theory), and on the nature and representation of evil in film and text. His research interests also extend to the history of Germanics, the theory and practice of censorship, and empirical readership studies.


educational background

 Oakland University, B.A.
 Universität München (two years)
 State University of New York at Buffalo, M.A., Ph.D.


previous positions

 University of Pennsylvania (1972-1991)
 Oakland University (1969-1972)


professional honors

• 2007 Fulbright German Studies Summer Seminar Fellowship
• 2006 Certificate of Merit for outstanding achievements in furthering and encouraging the study of German language and culture in the U.S.A., awarded by the Goethe Institutes in the United States together with the American Association of Teachers of German
• 2004 College of Arts and Science Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award
• 2001 Charlotte M. Craig Visiting Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University
• 2000 Venture Fund Award for Innovative Teaching Design

• 1998 Vanderbilt University Research Council Direct Research Grant
• 1998 Nominated for Chairs of Teaching Excellence, Vanderbilt U
• 1997 Elected President of the international Lessing Society (1997-99)
• 1994-95 Spence and Rebecca Webb Wilson Fellow in the Humanities
• 1993 Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship (German and Comparative Literature, LMU München)
• 1990 DAAD/GSA Biannual Best Book Prize for Crossing Boundaries: A History and Theory of Essay Writing in Germany, 1680-1815 (1989)
• Visiting Professor of German, Swarthmore College

contact information

Furman 129
Phone: 615-343-8939
245 Buttrick Hall
Phone: 322-2528
john.a.mccarthy@vanderbilt.edu