Gregory D. Kershner

Gregory D. Kershner is interim senior assistant dean of New College and adjunct associate professor of comparative literature and languages at Hofstra University. Dr. Kershner earned a Ph.D. with a specialization in German literature from the University of California at Davis, and a master's degree in international affairs with a specialization in international business from the School of Public and International Affairs at Columbia University. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Free University in Berlin, Germany.

Prior to joining the Hofstra faculty in 2001, Dr. Kershner worked for Smith Barney and JPMorgan Chase in treasury services. He also taught at Bryn Mawr College, where he was pivotal in creating the Environmental Studies program. Earlier in his career, Dr. Kershner was a visiting professor in American literature at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. He worked for a short time as an instructor at D-Q University, California's only Native American college. There he also developed cross-cultural curricula in Native American and English literature.

Dr. Kershner has played a primary role in the development of the curriculum and recruitment at New College at Hofstra University. He was also instrumental in the development of the recently approved Global Studies program. He also serves as director of the International Off-Campus Education program at Hofstra. Besides his duties as interim senior assistant dean, he teaches all levels of German language and comparative literature courses to undergraduate students. Dr. Kershner is presently preparing a course on psychoanalysis and the Gothic imagination in late 19th-century European literature, which will be offered for the first time in the fall of 2007.

Dr. Kershner's research interests center around decadent European literature, pathological psychology and psychoanalysis in the fin de siècle. He has published articles on post-war exiled German writers, and most recently an article about Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, titled "Transgression and Taboo: Eros, Marriage, and Incest in Die Walküre." He is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Modern Language Association and the American Association of Teachers of German.

Hofstra Horizons Articles

• Fall 2006: Horror and Eroticism: Bram Stoker's Dracula