Graduate Program Director:

mglevine@rci.rutgers.edu

Faculty Profile

mhelfer@rci.rutgers.edu

Faculty Profile

The Ph.D. Program

The Rutgers' Ph.D. Program in German offers a vibrant five-year program of study that supports cross-disciplinary work in the humanities. Students receive a strong grounding in the German, Austrian, and Swiss literary traditions, and are additionally encouraged to pursue literary theory, film studies, philosophy, women's and gender studies, history, and art history as these relate to German-language culture. The Transliteratures Program at Rutgers, with which the German Program is affiliated, offers further support for interdisciplinary work, and graduate students are required to take two courses outside the discipline. The faculty, which has published widely in all periods from the Middle Ages to the present, seeks to guide students through the array of choices. Since Rutgers is part of the Inter-University Doctoral Consortium, students who have completed one year of course-work at Rutgers are also free to take up to two courses at a partner institution, including Princeton University, Columbia University, New York University, the CUNY Graduate Center, New School University, Fordham University, Stony Brook University, and the Teachers College at Columbia University.

In the past few years dissertations have focused on subjects like Hermann Kant and East German politics, Magnus Hirschfeld and the 'Third Sex' -movement in Weimar Germany, the post-war literature of expulsion (Vertreibungsliteratur), and contemporary representations of alterity in 'minor' literatures within Germany. Recent graduates of the program have received job offers from Williams College, Kutztown University, Hunter College, Austin College, the University of Wyoming, and the DAAD.

In addition to research, the program emphasizes pedagogical training. A variety of seminars at the Rutgers World Languages Institute, a special course in pedagogy, and bi-annual teacher training days help prepare graduate students for the classroom. A voluntary apprenticeship program with the professors also enables students to teach classes other than those with which they have experience. Rutgers' proximity to New York City allows graduate students to use the city's resources for teaching: they host excursions for undergraduates to German cultural events in Manhattan and Brooklyn and integrate these into their courses.

Workshops with the graduate director and visitors sensitize students to professional life in academia. In recent years these workshops have dealt with topics such as conference abstracts and presentations, scholarship applications, the job market and the MLA, and careers in German publishing. As part of their professional development the graduate students regularly host conferences and workshops. Topics have included "Ostalgie-Nostalgia for East Germany?" and "Violence--A Necessary Evil?". More information about past graduate conferences can be found at http://german.rutgers.edu/events-news/recurring/index.htm#graduate.

The M.A. and M.A.T

The Masters and Masters of Teaching Programs are oriented toward students who would like to do an advanced degree in German without committing to the doctoral program. While students are integrated into courses with Ph.D. students, they are required to do different exams and research geared toward their later job expectations. As such, many Masters students complete a written thesis on an area of interest; Masters of Teaching students complete a teaching portfolio in their final semester. Such portfolios have focused on units that can be taught in high schools, including Grimms Marchen, the German musical tradition of the 19th century, and German terrorism of the 1970s.

For further information on any of these programs, please contact Acting Graduate Director Prof. Michael Levine at mglevine@rci.rutgers.edu.

The 30 credits taken toward a Rutgers M.A. or the maximum of 24 transfer credits are included in the 48 course credits towards a Ph.D. For transcripts from a foreign university, please consult the Graduate Director.

Students may not register for research credit (16:470:701 or 702) until they have successfully completed the qualifying examination; but once admitted to Ph.D. candidacy, registration for research credits is required until completion of the dissertation. Students who live near campus (i.e. within the metropolitan area New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania) are required to register for three research credits per semester. Students not living near campus are required to register for three research credits per semester. Students not living near campus are required to register for one research credit per semester. The maximum load of research credits is 12 credits per term.

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