North named Natanson Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures

Paul North, a renowned scholar whose research spans the fields of critical theory, the history of philosophy, comparative literatures, and political economy, was recently appointed the Maurice Natanson Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures.

North, who joined the Yale faculty in 2009, is chair of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

In his research, North has particular expertise in the work of Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin, and Karl Marx. He writes in the tradition of critical theory, emphasizing Jewish thought, emancipatory strains in the history of philosophy, and European literatures. Along with dozens of articles and book chapters, North has published three critically acclaimed books: “Bizarre Privileged Items in the Universe: The Logic of Likeness” (Zone Books, 2021), “The Yield: Kafka’s Atheological Reformation” (Stanford University Press, 2015), and “The Problem of Distraction” (Stanford University Press, 2011). His most recent book, “Bizarre Privileged Items in the Universe,” traces the concept of likeness across physics and the physical universe; evolution and evolutionary theory; psychology and the psyche; sociality, language, and art. He uses a wide range of sources to give shape to a new way of thinking that he terms “homeotics.”

In “The Yield,” North provides a once-in-a-generation reinterpretation of the oeuvre of Franz Kafka and a powerful new entry in the debates about the supposed secularity of the modern age. In “The Problem of Distraction,” he ties the work of Aristotle to the largely forgotten, early 20th-century efforts by Kafka, Heidegger, and Benjamin to revolutionize the humanities by means of distraction. With his thorough treatment of various concepts of distraction through the centuries, North contributes to the understanding of the complex nature of human thought valuable for scholars of literature and philosophy. Currently, he is co-editing a new edition and translation of Marx’s “Capital,” which will appear from Princeton University Press in 2024. In addition, he is writing a monograph entitled “The Standpoint of Marx’s Capital,” which will advance new perspectives on this foundational work of Western thought.

North, who is currently head of Jonathan Edwards College, has held leadership roles in many areas of Yale, including the executive committee of the Humanities Program, the Humanities Instructional Faculty Working Group, the Humanities Tenure and Promotion Committee, and the Executive Committee of Yale College. Additionally, he served as interim director for the Whitney Humanities Center in 2021 and is a central contributor to the Yale Prison Education Initiative. A dedicated mentor, scholar, and teacher, he demonstrates to his students how a shift in perspective can create the mental and emotional distance needed to confront complex challenges. He also encourages students to develop their own critical positions on histories and concepts that influence their lives.

He has been invited to speak at many national and international conferences and universities, including Brown University; University of Pennsylvania; Princeton University; University of Wollongong, Australia; Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen, Germany; University of Erfurt, Germany; Tel Aviv University, Israel; Hebrew University, Jerusalem, among many others. He co-edits the book series IDIOM: thinkingwritingtheory at Fordham University Press and co-directs the international exchange Critical Theory in the Global South in collaboration with faculty at the Universidad Metropolitana de Sciencias de la Educación in Santiago, Chile.

Honored and awarded by numerous organizations, North serves on the editorial board of the Diacritics journal, as series editor at Fordham University Press, and as a reviewer for numerous publishers. His research has been supported by the German government, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and other organizations.

North earned a B.A. at SUNY Binghamton, an M.A. at the CUNY Graduate Center, and his Ph.D. at Northwestern University.