Kiley Kost

Education & Professional History

University of Minnesota, MA; PhD

I received my PhD in Germanic Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2019. My research interests include environmental humanities, ecocriticism, critical theory and German-language literature. In particular, I explore geologic time scales in fiction and how stories of the deep past are told. I love teaching courses in German and English at all levels and I especially enjoy creating new classes that integrate exciting theoretical approaches with careful analysis of literature and other media. Together with several colleagues, I co-created the online resource hub Environment and Engagement in German Studies.

I have studied at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg and at the Universität Graz. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I spent two years teaching English in Austria as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant. In 2017-2018 I held a Fulbright research grant at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the LMU in Munich.

Are you interested in study abroad? Check out the OCS program in Vienna, which will be offered next in Spring 2026, and contact me with questions.

Highlights & Recent Activity

Peer Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

“Shape/Shift: Imagining a Discipline of Care through Mutual Aid.” Co-authored with Nichole Neuman. Feminist German Studies, vol. 40, no. 1, 2024, pp. 94-108.

“Assessments and Accessibility: Building a Critical German Program at Carleton College.” Co-authored with Seth Peabody and Juliane Schicker). Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, vol. 56, no. 1, 2023, pp. 89-92.

Co-editor with Seth Peabody and Dan Nolan of special section “Sustainability and Community Engagement in German Studies.” Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, vol. 54, no.2, 2021.

“Sustainability and Community Engagement in German Studies. Special Section Introduction” Co-authored with co-editors of special section Dan Nolan and Seth Peabody. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, vol. 54, no. 2, 2021, pp. 239-244. https://doi.org/10.1111/tger.12173

“Environment and Engagement in German Studies: Projects and Resources for Critical Environmental Thinking.” Co-authored with Seth Peabody. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German, vol. 54, no. 2, 2021, pp. 245-265. https://doi.org/10.1111/tger.12174

“Narrating a Valley in Max Frisch’s Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän: Material Agency, Rain, and the Geologic Past.” Humanities, vol. 10, no. 1, 2021, 43. https://doi.org/10.3390/h10010043

“Key Words.” Co-authored with Charlotte Melin. Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment: Theory, Curricula, Institutional Structures, edited by Charlotte Melin, The Modern Language Association of America, 2019.

“Material Ecocriticism and Peter Handke’s Versuch über den Pilznarren.” Of Rocks, Mushrooms and Animals: Material Ecocriticism in German-speaking Cultures, edited by Cecilia Novero in collaboration with August Obermayer and Peter Barton, Dunedin, 2017, pp. 73-96.

Other Publications

“Teaching Sustainability in German Studies: Culture, Curriculum, and Collaboration.” Forum on Activism, Outreach, and the Environment, The German Quarterly, vol. 97, no. 3, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/gequ.12468

Environment and Engagement in German Studies: A Resource Hub for Ecocriticism, Pedagogy, and Academic Civic Engagement. https://www.carleton.edu/german/sustainability/ 

Book Review: “Jason Groves. The Geological Unconscious: German Literature and the Mineral Imaginary.” The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory. Vol. 92, no. 2, 2021 pp. 214-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/00168890.2020.1865689 

“Sustainability and German Studies: From Ecocriticism to Community Engagement.” Review essay on 2019 GSA seminar, co-authored with Dan Nolan and Seth Peabody. German Studies Review vol. 43, no. 2, 2020.