Jacob-Ivan Eidt Ph.D.
Associate Professor of German, German Program Director, Modern Languages
Dr. Eidt joined the faculty of the University of Dallas in fall 2006, taking over directorship of the German program. He was also a founding member of the Comparative Literary Traditions major and longtime department chair from 2009-2021. His teaching and research interests include German literature of the long 19th century, German Romanticism, the Austro-German music tradition, and German film.
Dr. Eidt has published articles on Beethoven, Goethe, Nietzsche, Wagner, Rainer Maria Rilke, and the films of Werner Herzog, as well as translations of German poetry and editorial work on the intersections of music and literature. Dr. Eidt is also president of the Dallas Goethe Center, which promotes German language and culture in the DFW area and which has an office at the University of Dallas.
Dr. Eidt’s research has also led to many lectures and programs in cooperation with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra including the pre-concert lecture series Performance Preludes, the Bach Lunch Series and the SOLUNA festival.
One of the outstanding features of German at UD is the German intensive language program that Dr. Eidt designed with his wife and which they team teach every semester. The course allows students to complete the language requirement in one year and begin upper level courses as soon as possible.
- Ph.D., Germanic Studies, University of Texas at Austin
- M.A., Neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft, Deutsch als Fremdsprache and Philosophie, Die Katholische Universität Eichstätt,
- B.A. German and Philosophy, University of Mississippi
- German literature of the long 19th century
- Austro-German Music History and Aesthetics
- German Film
- Germanic mythology
- Goethe, Rilke, Thomas Mann, Wagner
- Director of German Program (2006-present)
- Director of Comparative Literary Traditions Program (2016-Present).
- Chairman, Department of Modern Languages (2009-2021)
- Chair, Faculty Senate (2024-2025)
- Vice-Chair Faculty Senate (2022-2024)
- Faculty Senator (2009-present)
- Associate Professor of German (2013-present)
- Assistant Professor of German (2007-2013)
- Visiting Assistant Professor of German (2006-2007)
- MGE 1602 – 2602 Intensive German I-II
- MGE 3333 History of the German Language
- MGE 4335 Advanced German Civilization
- MGE 3310 Advanced German Grammar
- MCTG 4346 Wagner
- MCT 3321 Tolkien and Germanic Mythology
- MGE 3311 German Conversation and Composition
- MGE 4321 German Lyric Poetry
- MGE 3341 German Lit. Trad. I (Medieval to Sturm und Drang)
- MGE 3342 German Lit. Trad. II (Classicism to Modernism)
- MGE 3312 Introduction to German Studies
- MGE 3334 German Translation
- MGE 4320 The German Novella from Goethe to Kafka
- MCT 3309 Introduction to Comparative Literary Traditions
- MCTG 3305 Introduction to German Literature
- MCTG 5311-5312 German for Reading Knowledge I-II (graduate)
- HUM 6326 The Modern World (graduate)
- Forthcoming: “Beyond the Roundness of Rings” or Wagner and Tolkien revisited – Word on Fire Academic Press 2025.
- “Cave Musicam oder die Problematisierung der Musik im 19. Jahrhundert am Beispiel von Goethe, Nietzsche und Rilke.” In: Rilkes Musikalität, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht unipress – Palaestra series, 2019.
- “Man möchte sich fürchten, das Haus fiele ein”; Goethe’s Beethoven-Reception and the Elemental in Music In: Goethe’s Bildung: Dialog between Tradition and Innovation Ed. Jacob-Ivan Eidt and Christoph Daniel Weber, Peter Lang, 2019.
- Editor Goethe’s Bildung: Dialog between Tradition and Innovation, Peter Lang, 2019
- Editor ““Reading the Beat”—Musical Aesthetics and Literature". Humanities open access journal special issue ed. ISSN 2076-0787, 2015
- Book Chapter: “Aesthetics, Opera, and Alterity in Herzog's Work” In: The Companion to Comparative Literature, World Literatures, and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Tutun Mukherjee, Cambridge University Press, 2013.
- “Empathy of Sound and Sublimity of Sight: Music, Image, and the Kantian Sublime in Werner Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness." Glossen 35/2012
- "Aesthetics, Opera, and Alterity in Herzog's Work." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14.1 (2012)
- “Rilke contra Wagner: Rilke’s early concept of Music and the Convergence of the Arts around 1900”. Studia theodisca XVIII, 2011.
- "Rilke und die Musik(er). Überlegungen zu Rilkes Musikverständnis im Kontext seiner Zeit." In: Rilkes Welt: Festschrift für August Stahl pp. 127-134 Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2009.
- “The Dean” (a discussion of Lars Gustafsson’s novel Dekanen as world literature and pedagogical text) in Modern Language Studies Vol. 35. number 2, pp. 92-97, 2005
- Translations of selected poems by Peter Rühmkorf. Dimension2 7.2/3 pp. 208-13 (a bilingual literary magazine of contemporary German-Language Literature), 2005..
- Translations of selected poems by Harald Gerlach. Dimension2 6. 2/3 pp. 374-79, 2003.
- Kentucky Foreign Language Conference presentation: "The Classical Principle of Variation and the Micro-Myth of atonal music in Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus". 2024.
- “Das Traumland”, Pope Benedict XVI and Bavaria – Panel commemorating birthday of Benedict XVI. 2024.
- Conference paper (peer reviewed) entitled “Beyond the Roundness of Rings” or Wagner and Tolkien revisited at the Tolkien Conference: A LONG EXPECTED PARTY: A SEMICENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF TOLKIEN’S LIFE, WORKS, AND AFTERLIFE at the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio in September 2023.
- Bach’s Lunch Lecture Series at the Dallas Symphony: "Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and the Synthesis of Form and Affectation". 2023.
- Performance Prelude lecture series for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Pre-concert lecture series on works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Dvorak, Brahms, Haydn, Schubert, Bruckner, Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Bartok, Rihm and Leshnoff. 2014-2022.
- Conference Paper: International Conference on Romanticism “Beethoven, Schönberg and the Devil: The legacy of Romantic Music in Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus”. College of Charleston. 2021.
- Invited lecture: Rome Campus Rome Keynote Address: “Auch ich in Arkadien Goethe’s Italian Journey and the idea of formative education” – Convivium lecture series dedicated to the memory of Jim Fougerousse. 2021.
- Dallas Symphony Orchestra invited talk for the Bach’s Lunch Series: "Beethoven, Schönberg and the Devil: The Music of Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus", May 12, 2021.
- Invited lecture: “Goethe’s West-Östlicher Divan and Cultural Exchange in World Literature” Collin Community College Distinguished Lecture Series – Panel on Goethe. 2020.
- "Musical, literary and filmic Leitmotivs as structural principle of adaptation: Luchino Visconti’s film adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice". Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association Chicago November 13-15, 2019.
- Dallas SOLUNA festival: "Discovering Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre". Hour-long lecture at AT&T Performing Arts Center, May 24, 2018.
- Cave Musicam oder die Problematisierung der Musik im 19. Jahrhundert am Beispiel von Rilke, Goethe, und Nietzsche – Rilkes Musikalität: Tagung am Institut für Germanistik, Universität Regensburg. 2017.
- "Leverkühn’s Death in Venice: Greek Antiquity, German Romanticism, and Luchino Visconti’s film adaptation of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice." Annual Convention of the South Central Modern Language Association November 3, 2016.
- “Kaspar’s Magic Flute: Soundtrack and Intertexuality in Herzog’s Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.” Annual Convention of the South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA) Nashville, TN November 1-4, 2015.
- "Re-imagining the Other in Film: Alterity and the Musical Sublime in Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo." Film panel Annual Convention of the South Central Modern Language Association (SCMLA) San Antonio, TX November 8 – 10, 2012.
- Thyssen Stiftung travel grant to Germany (University of Regensburg).
- Travel Grant and Honorarium – Rome Campus Convivium lecture series dedicated to the memory of Jim Fougerousse.
- UD Piper Award Nominee
- Haggerty travel awards for conferences (multiple years).
- Introduction to German Studies Course recognized as among the very best in the nation, top 10 (Exemplifier of best practices) by Educational Policy Improvement and the College Board
- Travel and Accommodations grant for Workshop for Advanced Teaching: Goethe-Institut, Chicago
- European Conference Travel Grant (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium) from the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame.
- German Translator
- Testing Chair of American Association of Teachers of German (North Texas Chapter)
- Completed training as a certified examiner for the Goethe Institute exams C-1 and C-2
- German Department of Labor, Munich, Germany
- Interpreter / Translator for the St. Francis of Assisi Academy
- ESL Instructor
- TOIEC proctor (Test of International English Communication)
- International Teaching Assistant Rater