Ricky Quales
German
Graduate Student
he/him/his
Languages: German, Spanish, Greek (modern and koine), French
Area(s) of Study: 20th-century German literature, philosophy, intellectual history
About: I’m a recovering high-school teacher who spends an ill-advised amount of time reading and running (but rarely at the same time!). If I’m not browsing used bookstores or brooding in some dark corner of a coffee shop, you’ll find me outside running or hiking in the woods alone or with my wife.
My research interests are hard to pin down, but I’ll say that I’m fascinated by writers who show formal inventiveness or stylistic exuberance. Obviously, this is so broad as to be meaningless, so if you insist on clarification, I would say I’m interested in 20th-century literature, particularly the work of Thomas Bernhard. I’m also interested in philosophy, having come to German by way of the naive idea that knowing German would make German philosophy easier to understand (spoiler: it doesn’t).
Education:
– East Tennessee State University – BA, Foreign Languages with Concentration in German (2014)
– East Tennessee State University – MAT, Teacher Education with Concentration in Secondary 6-12 (2021)
Courses Taught:
– GER102