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The graduate program in Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago
stresses an interdisciplinary model of study, long an emphasis at this
University, which allows students to construct fields of research in fresh
ways. In order to draw on the University’s strengths, both inside
and outside the department, students are encouraged to work not only with
departmental and affiliated faculty but with faculty throughout the University
whose courses are of relevance to their particular interests.
The University’s workshops (non-credit, interdepartmental seminars
that meet biweekly) offer a further avenue for interdisciplinary work.
Students are also encouraged to participate in the department’s colloquia
and lecture/discussions.
Language courses taught in the department include German, Norwegian,
and Middle High German.
Application and Financial Support
Applicants to the Department of Germanic Studies should have a solid
background in German language and culture. Students with undergraduate
degrees in other fields are encouraged to apply but must include with
their application a list of relevant German/Germanic courses as well as
a letter of recommendation from a faculty member able to evaluate their
level of German language competency. Such students will be asked to make
up deficiencies in their language preparation before entry into the graduate
program. All entering students whose native language is not German are
required to pass an ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages) oral proficiency examination in German during their first quarter
in the program.
Admission to the department is competitive. A small number of highly
qualified students will be offered a five-year package of financial aid
which includes three years of teaching. The department’s own funds
are used to support students in summer projects, travel, and research.
In addition, the Norwegian Culture Program
Endowment Fund provides some money for research and travel support for
students interested in Norwegian language and culture. Finally, competitive
university grants are available for dissertation-level teaching, research,
and writing.
Applications to the program must include a writing sample of not more
than twenty pages, in German or English; Graduate Record Exam scores from
the general examination; TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language)
scores, if applicable; and three letters of recommendation.
Degree Requirements
The following is an outline of the main features of the graduate program.
If you need additional information, please write directly to the Department
of Germanic Studies.
Students in the Department of Germanic Studies are as a rule admitted
to the entire Ph.D. sequence of study. Students interested in a one-year
interdisciplinary master’s program in Germanic Studies may want to
contact the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (see page 61). Study
towards the A.M. degree, normally completed after the first year, is intended
as an introductory period, a time for both faculty and students to decide
on the suitability of an extended graduate program. All students entering
the Ph.D. program with a master’s degree from another institution
will undergo an informal evaluation at the end of their first year in
the department to assess their progress and to plan their further course
of study.
Degree of Master of Arts
In mid-April of the first year of study, the departmental faculty will
examine each student, both to determine whether the A.M. should be awarded
and to determine whether the student should be encouraged to continue
on to the Ph.D. So that the faculty can gain the most representative view
of each student’s work, progress, and prospects, each A.M. candidate
must submit to the department a 1–2 page personal statement (along
with copies of the syllabi of all graduate courses taken at the University
of Chicago), two weeks prior to the exam. In this self-assessment, each
student should offer an account of intellectual work and growth in the
A.M. program, and tentative plans for further work. At the same time,
the student must submit a paper which he or she feels best represents
the work done in the A.M. year, intellectual strengths, or possible future
interests. Normally, this paper will have been written originally for
a University of Chicago graduate course. It may either be submitted
in its original form or, if the student wishes, revised further. The exam
will consist of two parts:
- a two-hour, written examination meant to test interpretive and close-reading
skills;
- an hour-long discussion, held within two weeks of the written exam,
of the interpretive essay, paper, and personal statement.
Already in the summer prior to arrival on campus, each student will receive
a list of several works, one of which will serve as the basis of the exam.
Students will also receive a packet of representative critical essays
by major literary scholars displaying a range of analytical styles and
methods of engaging with the verbal material and formal composition of
literary and non-literary texts.
Course work: Three quarters of course work, and a total of eight
courses, are required during the first year of study. These include two
mandatory pedagogy courses (“Acquisition and Teaching of Foreign
Languages” and “Teaching Practicum in German”). A completed
A.M., which includes the pedagogy courses and a “superior” rating
on the German oral proficiency text, is prerequisite for teaching appointments.
Besides the pedagogy courses, students must take at least one course each
quarter from departmental faculty, and at least two additional courses
from departmental or affiliated faculty during the year. The remaining
course could be one containing little or no Germanic material and taken
primarily for methodological, theoretical, or historical interest. All
courses except the “Teaching Practicum in German” must be taken
for a letter grade. We expect students to develop a broad historical sense
of German culture through coursework as well as their own background reading.
The primary aim of the master’s year is for students to explore a
variety of materials, approaches and problems.
Language examination: Students who do not achieve a “superior”
rating on the oral proficiency examination in German (to be taken early
in their first quarter) will be advised to undertake further language
training or to take other steps to improve their skills; they will be
re-tested during the second quarter.
Teaching in the College
Teaching in the undergraduate language program is an integral part of
the graduate program. Graduate students in the Department of Germanic
Studies at the University of Chicago will enter the job market with a
solid basis of knowledge in current pedagogical theory and practice as
well as a range of teaching experiences in a variety of classroom settings.
Preparation for teaching begins with participation in the graduate seminar
on teaching, GRMN 49100, "Acquisition and Teaching of Foreign Languages."
This course is an introduction to foreign language acquisition and to
the theoretical models underlying current methods, approaches and classroom
practices. Participants also write detailed lesson plans, learn to implement
specific techniques and activities, observe classes in the first-year
sequence, and do supervised practice teaching.
Graduate students teach in both the beginning and intermediate German
language program. They have full responsibility for the courses they teach,
including syllabus design, day-to-day instruction, test design, grading
and all other record keeping. Input from the graduate students is also
critical in the ongoing implementation and revision of the curriculum.
Internal grant monies have been made available to support the development
of an on-line writing project designed by graduate students, as well as
other curricular innovations.
German in the College: Course Offerings:
German 10100–10200–10300 Elementary German for beginners
German 20100–20200–20300 Second year content-based sequence
20100–Deutsche Märchen
20200–Deutsch-amerikanische Themen
20300–Prosa aus dem 20. Jahrhundert
German 21101-21201-21301 Third year sequence
21101-Fokus: Zeitraum. Advanced German through the study of one era.
21201-Fokus: Gattung. Advanced German through the study of one genre.
21301-Folus: Schriftsteller. Advanced German through the study of an
individual or group.
There are also Language Across the Curriculum (LxC) courses in a variety
of disciplines. The Humanities Division is currently the recipient of
a generous five-year grant from the Bosch Foundation that enables three
young scholars from Germany to visit the University of Chicago each year,
one per quarter. The scholars, who represent a wide range of fields related
to Germanic Studies, offer a graduate level course in their field and
a LxC section for an undergraduate course. The LxC sections may be taught
entirely in German or may involve discussion sessions in German. Graduate
students may work with the Bosch Scholars in administering the LxC sections
and gain experience in a curricular model which is gaining attention at
institutions across the country.
Graduate students also have the opportunity to work as on-site coordinators
and/or instructors in study-abroad programs in Vienna and Freiburg. The
preparation of students for study abroad and their reintegration into
the curriculum is an ongoing process in which graduate students, in their
role as instructors, are deeply involved.
Each fall there is an orientation for all graduate students who will teach
that year. It is often held in conjunction with other language departments
in the College and deals with general procedural and pedagogical issues
as well as specific course objectives and practices. This inter-departmental
cooperation also includes jointly held workshops and seminars on different
topics in the field of second language teaching, offered by University
of Chicago faculty and experts from other institutions.
Pedagogical development is not limited to the language curriculum. As
part of their qualifying exams, Ph.D. students must prepare two annotated
course syllabi on various topics and at different levels. Cooperation
with faculty on these syllabi is essential. The task enables students
to develop and apply their knowledge of pedagogy to the teaching of literature
and cultural studies. (For more detailed information on this requirement,
students may want to consult http://humanities.uchicago.edu/german/graduate/index.html.)
The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
The Ph.D. phase of study will be self-designed to a greater extent than
the A.M. Students who enter with an A.M. from another university will
be required to take two pedagogy courses in their first year (“Acquisition
and Teaching of Foreign Languages” and “Teaching Practicum in
German”). One or both courses of this requirement may be waived by
the department, if a student can prove that equivalent work was successfully
completed at another institution. Completion of the courses (or departmental
waivers), together with a “superior” rating on the oral proficiency
interview in German taken early in the first quarter (or re-taken later
if necessary), are prerequisites for teaching appointments.
Language examination: All students are required to pass one university
foreign language reading examination (usually in French, Latin, Russian
or Italian) before taking their Ph.D. oral exams. Students whose dissertation
work requires them to read original texts in a language not listed above
may petition the department and division to accept that language instead.
Ph.D. examinations: Students will complete the Ph.D. exams in
three stages. During the last quarter of the first Ph.D. year and the
following summer, students are asked to begin assembling a Ph.D. major
field list (of about 50 works) and two annotated syllabi for future courses—one
undergraduate, one graduate—that they would like to teach. These
courses should be on topics other than the major field, although they
may intersect with it.
Students are invited to consult with as many faculty members as possible
as they work on these materials. They should also arrange for an exam
committee of three faculty: two faculty members (normally both members
of the department) to compose and evaluate the written examination questions,
and a third faculty member (usually drawn from the department or affiliated
faculty) to serve as an additional examiner for the oral exam.
At the beginning of the fall quarter of the second Ph.D. year, students
will submit preliminary exam lists and both syllabi to the faculty committee
they have chosen and to the graduate advisor. (In many cases, students
will actually wish to submit one of these syllabi for the annual Tave
competition in the winter quarter.)
The four-hour, open-book, written exam, will be taken no later than the
7th week of spring quarter. Six weeks prior to the exam, each student
will submit to the exam committee and to the graduate advisor a list of
categories and questions which indicate what he or she considers to be
the salient issues of the major field. Faculty will use this list as a
guide in preparing the exam. Within two weeks of the exam, the committee,
joined by the third member, will meet with the student for an hour-long
discussion that will encompass the exam, the two syllabi, and plans for
the dissertation. Students should work on their dissertation proposals
over the summer and schedule the formal proposal defense at the beginning
of the fall quarter of the third Ph.D. year. For further details regarding
the Ph.D. examinations, students are encouraged to consult with the graduate
advisor.
After the Ph.D. examination, a student should identify and select a dissertation
committee. One member of the committee is chosen as the dissertation advisor
and primary reader, and the others as second and third readers. A proposal
ought not attempt to predict the final conclusions of the project before
the research is fully under way. Instead, it should attempt to divide
the project into subordinate questions and to rank the parts of the project
in terms of priority. It should include a preliminary bibliography, and
indicate a rough timetable for the research and writing of the dissertation.
The student will then have an opportunity to discuss the project in a
proposal defense with the dissertation committee. This should be done
not later than one quarter after the Ph.D. examination. Students should
file copies of their examination lists and proposal with the department
secretary.
Writing the dissertation: After the proposal has been approved
by the readers, the student should plan on spending the remainder of the
fourth year researching and reading. Some students may spend this time
away; others may choose to remain in Chicago to work closely with their
readers. We encourage students to try to complete the dissertation during
the fifth year, if possible. All students should complete the dissertation
by the end of the sixth year.
A note regarding course work: Students are free to establish whatever
balance of course work and individual preparation works best for them,
as long as the minimum number of courses—eight over two years, not
including pedagogy courses—is completed. All of these courses must
be taken for credit and five of them must involve the writing of a substantial
paper. Typically, the two post-A.M. years (during which students will
also be teaching) will look as follows: two seminars each quarter the
first year; at least one seminar each quarter for the fall and winter
quarters of the second year; exams in the spring quarter of the second
year. In this way students will have ample time during the second Ph.D.
year to prepare for the exams.
This text was last revised on 9/15/2003.
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