Christophe A. Koné

Christophe A. Koné

Associate Professor of German, Director of Oakley Center for Humanities & Social Sciences

413-597-3983
Oakley Center/Makepeace
At Williams since 2013

Education

M.A. Université Lumiere Lyon 2 (2006)
Ph.D. Rutgers University (2013)

Areas of Expertise

Christophe Koné’s research interests include German Romanticism, Modernism, Film Studies, Art History, Comics, Modern Dance, and Fashion Studies.

Courses

GERM 203 SEM

Hansestadt Hamburg (not offered 2025/26)

COMP 246 SEM

Bloody Vampires: From Fiction to Film and Fashion (not offered 2025/26)

COMP 251 / GERM 251 SEM

Dolls, Puppets and Automatons (not offered 2025/26)

COMP 276 / AFR 276 / GERM 276 TUT

Black Europeans (not offered 2025/26)

GERM 321 SEM

Lust, Liebe und Gewalt (not offered 2025/26)

Scholarship/Creative Work

Uncanny Creatures: Doll Thinking in Modern German Culture. University of Michigan Press (July, 2024).

“Rebecca Fontaine Wolf’s Photo Series: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” in Flesh & the Mirror: The Self-Image of Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf In-Fems art collective catalogue, 2024 pp. 61-63.

“Lotte Pritzel’s ‘Dolls for the Vitrine’ – A Post-Colonial Reading of Avant-Garde Dolls in Germany during the Interwar Years“ in Ich weiß, dass ich mich verdoppeln kann – Gisèle Vienne und die Puppen der Avant-garde in Georg Kolbe Museum Verlag, September 2024 pp. 16-29.

„Der menschliche Ansatz ist für mich der Ausgangspunkt.“ Germanistik Associate Professor Christophe Koné interviewt Choreografen Andreas Heise. Werkgespräche II. Kritische Ausgabe 38, 2023. Verlag Dreiviertelhaus

“Laurie Simmons’ The Love Doll: Looking at a Sex Doll Anew” in Denkste Puppe: “puppen/dolls like mensch – dolls/puppets as artificial beings” Double Issue 1.1 / 2020 and 1.2 /2020. https://dspace.ub.uni-siegen.de/handle/ubsi/1723

“Das Augenmotiv in E.T.A. Hoffmanns Sandmann” in ETA Hoffmann-Archiv – Portal der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, 2016

http://etahoffmann.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/erforschen/charakteristisches/auge/

“Max Beckmann’s Vision: Faces, Defacement, and Facing the Truth” in Reframed: Perspectives on the Madeleine P. and Harvey R. Plonsker Collection, Williams College Museum of Art Press, 2016 pp. 48-57.

“Learning to Flirt with Don Juan” in Flirtations. Rhetoric and Aesthetics. This Side of Seduction. Edited by Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, Barbara Nagel, and Lauren Shizuko-Stone. Fordham University Press, 2015, p. 91-98.

“Unbehagen in der Oper: Robert Lepages Ring-Bau und die Met-Maschine” in Jenseits von Bayreuth. Richard Wagner heute: Neue kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Edited by Stefan Börnchen, Georg Mein, and Elisabeth Strowick. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2014, p. 215-224.

“Aschenbach’s Homovisual Desire: Scopophilia in Thomas Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig” in Thomas Mann, Neue kulturwissenschaftliche Lektüren. Edited by Stefan Börnchen, Georg Mein, and Gary Schmidt. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2012, p. 95-106.

“The Key to Voyeurism: Haneke’s Adaptation of Jelinek’s The Piano Teacher” with Fatima Naqvi in On Michael Haneke. Edited by Brian Price and John David Rhodes. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010, p. 127-150.

Awards, Fellowships & Grants

Class of 1945 World Fellowship in July 2022

Class of 1945 World Fellowship in July 2018

Hellmann Faculty Fellowship in July 2016

Professional Affiliations

German Studies Association

American Friends of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

American Comparative Literature Association

Modern Language Association of America

Since 2024         Bloomsbury Academic Press Visual Cultures & German Contexts Advisory Board Member

 2023-27             German Studies Association Delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)

2020-22             German Studies Association Program Committee 20th/21st century Germanistik Coordinator

 2024-2027         Member of the selection committee for the American Comparative Literature Association A. Owen Aldridge  Prize for outstanding graduate student scholarship

2024-2028         Member of the Board of Directors of Images Cinema, Non-Profit Community Movie Theater

2024-2027         Jacob’s Pillow, Dance Festival Season Gala opening committee member