Graduate

A community of scholars

Ours is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished graduate programs in Germanic Studies in the United States. Talented and ambitious students choose to come to us from all parts of the world.

Our graduate students combine training as generalists with various specializations from our program and beyond. In addition to the core faculty members in Germanic Studies, we have a large network of adjunct professors in many departments and programs.

Our M.A. and Ph.D. students receive stipends and fellowships of $22,000-$26,000 (or more) per year, plus health insurance and full remission of tuition and fees.

Recent recipients of the Ph.D. in Germanic Studies have found employment as faculty at institutions such as Auburn University, the University of Toronto, Cornell University, and the University of Tampere (Finland).

Our academic culture

Definitive

The expertise of our faculty is unmatched in its breadth. We offer courses in German literature and culture from the Middle Ages through the digital age. We have strong offerings in Germanic philology (Old Norse, Old and Middle High German, Old Saxon, Gothic, Yiddish) as well as a rigorous program in Germanic theoretical linguistics. No matter what our students may be interested in, they are likely to find an interlocutor among our faculty.

Collaborative

Like the faculty, all of our students draw inspiration from the many distinctive programs on campus that adjoin our field, such as Comparative Literature, History, Jewish Studies, Medieval Studies, Linguistics, Second Language Studies, Gender Studies, History and Philosophy of Science, Political Theory, Cognitive Science, and English, among others. A spirit of collaboration invigorates our research.

Distinguished

Every member of our faculty is active in research and scholarship, and everyone has either earned or is on the path to earning an international reputation in their field. Our faculty have won MLA book prizes, prestigious fellowships (NEH, Humboldt, ACLS, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, IFK in Vienna), and invitations to present keynote addresses at international conferences. Although our areas of expertise and our theoretical approaches vary, we all share a commitment to theoretical sophistication and conceptual rigor.

Demanding

With the range of interests represented by our faculty, the curriculum cannot help but be both flexible and challenging. Our students take a substantial number of courses in a broad range of areas, and all must pass a qualifying examination based on a comprehensive reading list. We have found that such breadth yields more significant dissertations, as well as greater success on the job market.

Rigorous

We take teaching seriously. All our students take part in intensive, hands-on training in second-language pedagogy, reinforced by teaching at all levels of the language, literature, and culture curriculum. We also enjoy the possibility of advanced study in second-language acquisition. The excellent reputation of our rigorous training program has played an important part in helping our students earn desirable positions.

Intensive

Fostering faculty-student collaboration is part and parcel of our departmental culture. Our students are counseled about the many decisions they make as they enter the profession: their course of study, their research projects, their participation in the larger community of scholars in conferences and publications. All students and faculty are involved in independent studies. They often take part in reading groups or conduct research together, leading to common publications.

Graduate degrees

Germanic Studies M.A.
Secondary Education M.A.T.
Germanic Linguistics + Philology Ph.D.
Modern German Literature + Culture Ph.D.
Ph.D. minors

Interdisciplinary study

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