Thomas Fuhr earned his PhD and Dr. Phil in the dual degree program Transcultural German Studies, from the University of Arizona and Universität Leipzig, in 2023. Before joining OU’s Department of MLLL as Lecturer of German in the Fall of 2026, Dr. Fuhr worked as Lecturer and Director of the Basic Language Program in the German Department at the University of Arizona, where he also directed the Study Abroad Program in Leipzig, Germany, in 2025 and 2026.
Dr. Fuhr’s research interests include the environmental humanities, utopian/dystopian themes, the history and concept of Heimat, and political authorship in German literature from the nineteenth century and today. For example, he investigates how village stories negotiate questions of identity and belonging, and he analyzes how movements of social change, environmental or political activism, are represented in literary fiction, but also through films and different types of music.
Currently, Dr. Fuhr teaches two sections of Beginning German (GERM 1115) and a section of Intermediate German (GERM 2113). When he isn’t having fun teaching, coming up with language games, or preparing a course on a diversity of topics that interest him – from Romanticism to the concept of nature to German cinema –, he explores a good hiking spot, practices disc-golf, strums on his guitar, or enjoys a fresh fruit.
1) Ph.D./Dr. phil. in Transcultural German Studies. University of Arizona and Universität Leipzig. 2023
2) M.A. (Magister Artium) in Ethnology (minors: Spanish, Pedagogy). University of Mainz. 2015
