Dr. John Benjamin, Ph.D.

Dr. John D. Benjamin is an assistant professor of German in the Department of English & World Languages at the United States Military  Academy. He is also the department academic counselor (German) and the officer in charge for Polish Language Forum (Kościuszko Squad.

He received his B.A. in German in 2005 from the University of California, Berkeley, following a year abroad at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2003–04. After teaching English in Austria via the Austrian-American Educational Commission/Fulbright Program, he earned his M.A. in German from Princeton University in 2011. 

From 2011–15, he taught German at Princeton University, Westminster Choir College (Princeton, New Jersey), the College of New Jersey, and the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Dr. Benjamin then earned his Ph.D. in 2019 in Germanic studies from the University of Texas at Austin with a dissertation that considered the role of multimodality in reading in a second language using the example of graphic novels. 

His scholarship focuses on reading in a second language, applied linguistics, and multimodal adaptation; German graphic novels; music; and the role of form in cultural development. His publications have appeared in Die Unterrichtspraxis, The German Quarterly, and Second Language Research & Practice, as well as in edited volumes on applied linguistics and visual culture. 

In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Benjamin is an avid language learner and music enthusiast.