Kevin Vennemann

Kevin Vennemann is an Associate Professor of German and Chair of the Department of German at Scripps College. His office is located in Humanities 215, and he holds office hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. He is a scholar of 19th-century comparative literature, film, modernism, and Holocaust studies.

• Academic Focus: 19th-century comparative literature, film studies, modernism, Holocaust studies, urban studies, architecture, and cultural thermodynamics.
• Research Themes: Explores intersections of thermodynamics and societal decline, feminist cinema, cultural memory, and urban dynamics in Los Angeles.
• Awards: Multiple Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Awards for research and teaching excellence.
• Editorial Work: Co-edited volumes on art and theory, including works by Chris Kraus and Else Lasker-Schüler.
• Translation: Translated English texts to German, such as works by Donald Richie and Franco Berardi.

His recent monograph The All-Round Reduced Personality—Redupers (2024) analyzes Helke Sander’s feminist cinema, while Thermodynamics and the Decline of a Family (2020) connects physics to cultural narratives of exhaustion. He has taught courses on Karl Marx, cinema, and German modernism.

His 2025 articles address environmental challenges in California and museum architecture, complementing earlier work on feminist film theory, labor dynamics, and avant-garde art. His scholarship spans comparative literature, critical theory, and interdisciplinary cultural analysis.

• Scientific Awards:
  • Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award 2023/2024 - Research
  • Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award 2021/2022 - Teaching
  • Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award 2020/2021 - Research