Thomas Fuhr received his doctorate in Transcultural German Studies and currently serves as Lecturer and Language Program Director. Before coming to Tucson, he earned a master's degree in anthropology at the University of Mainz, Germany, with a thesis on syncretism and cultural revitalization. Apart from German and English, Thomas speaks Spanish and Portuguese fluently, and he has acquired an intermediate level of Turkish as well as the basics of Yorùbá and Tohono O'odham during his studies. His research interests in German studies include contemporary village novels, translation, and the strangely intertwined history of recurring Heimat booms with the idea of indigeneity in German literature. He has co-translated an essay on food, and published on the topic of critical dystopia. In his dissertation, Thomas examined the possible roles and functions of contemporary literature in an increasingly pluralistic German society, looking for new ways to express home, belonging and identity. His doctoral advisors were Assistant Professor Dr. Joela Jacobs (Tucson) and PD Dr. Leonhard Herrmann (Leipzig). At the University of Arizona, Thomas has worked as an instructor for German language classes, as a Teaching Assistant for General Education classes, and he has designed and taught two fully online General Education courses. In the academic year 2020-2021, Thomas held the position of Assistant Language Program Director of the German Department. He is part of the 2017-2018 University Fellows Program cohort, and has received a Russel J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowship for the 2022-2023 academic year.