Jan Hagens

Jan Hagens's picture
Title: 
Senior Research Scholar in Divinity and Lecturer in Comparative Literature
+1 203-432-2758

Jan Hagens’ research focuses on German and comparative drama (1550 to the present), drama theory, and philosophical and theological approaches to literature. He has published articles on seventeenth-century Jesuit drama, dramatic genre theory, theater semiotics, German film, Nietzsche, Freud, and language pedagogy. His current research project, “The Wounded Embrace: An Essay on the Drama of Reconciliation,” examines potentially tragic plays that achieve productive resolution. Hagens’ teaching interests include German literature, film, intellectual history, and comparative drama, as well as theories of forgiveness and reconciliation. Hagens studied German literature, English literature, and Philosophy at the Universität Tübingen, Williams College, the University of Virginia, and Princeton University. He taught at Carleton College, Eckerd College, and the University of Notre Dame before joining Yale in 2010. He has won fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Templeton Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Max Kade Foundation; in 2007 he won the University of Notre Dame’s first Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He serves on the editorial board of Text and Presentation and the conference board of the Comparative Drama Conference.  At Yale Divinity School, he directs YDS Summer Study, the Visiting Fellows Program, and all international student exchange programs (Cambridge, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, Tübingen, Freiburg, Jerusalem, Hong Kong, and Singapore).

Education History

M.A. University of Virginia
M.A. Universität Tübingen
M.A./Ph.D. Princeton University

Research Interests

German and comparative drama (1550 to the present); drama theory; and philosophical and theological approaches to literature