He also teaches Modern Standard Arabic. His research interests revolve around 18th and 20th century German literature, philosophy and music. Mirko has recently published on music and philosophy in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies and Eighteenth-Century Studies. In January 2009, he taught an advanced seminar on the iPod as a technology of the Self at the University of Iceland in Reykjavík. Mirko is currently working on Listening in the State of Emergency, a book that explores the nexus of listening subjectivity and critical theory in modernity. Originally from the Twin Cities, he received his BA with highest honors, MA and PhD in German Studies from the University of Minnesota. As a Fulbright Fellow, he also studied philosophy and musicology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.