The Graduate Program in German Studies at Rutgers University is currently inviting applications for PhD candidates in German Studies starting September 2024.
The graduate program in German Studies offers a vibrant and comprehensive curriculum in 18th- to the 21st.century literature and literary theory, gender and media studies, Jewish studies, psychoanalysis, avant-garde and modernism studies. Our internationally recognized faculty offer cutting-edge training in research and teaching skills. The German Department includes several affiliated faculty members in Art History, Jewish Studies, History, and Political Sciences who offer courses within German Studies and work actively with our students. The German program has close ties to several interdisciplinary centers at Rutgers, including the Center for Cultural Analysis, the Center for European Studies, and the Digital Humanities Initiative. Every spring semester, the German Department hosts a Charlotte-M.-Craig Distinguished Guest Professor.
Graduate students are trained in cross-disciplinary, critical, and theoretical thinking and receive a thorough pedagogical training in language instruction. Our students explore a wide array of related academic fields in graduate seminars, colloquia, faculty-guided independent studies, and professional development workshops. They can enhance their training with graduate certificates in Cinema Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and World Language Teaching, and can courses in neighboring departments such as Princeton, Columbia, NYU, and CUNY through the Doctoral Consortium.
The German Department – together with the Ruhr-Universität-Bochum, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, and the Universität Wien – holds an annual summer academy on “Media Philology” which allows Ph.D. candidate to present their dissertational work to an international faculty.
Fellowships
Students who are awarded doctoral fellowships are guaranteed four to five years of full support, comprising a combination of fellowship and teaching assistantship in German language instruction. Additional support beyond this guaranteed funding is available through instructorship and departmental fellowships. In addition to their stipend, graduate students receive remission of tuition and fees and health benefits. The German Department has a strong record of outside grant and fellowship acquisition, and our faculty members take great care in supporting graduate students in competitive applications. The Department provides further opportunities for summer research and conference attendance through language instruction on campus and abroad and individual research fellowships and travel grants.
Application Requirements
Please see the SGS online application portal where you will find the online application. The German Department requires the following documents:
- a statement of purpose which includes educational objectives and academic career goals, professional reasons for choosing German Studies, and explains why this can best be done at Rutgers;
- a writing sample which demonstrates skills in reading literary or philosophical works (ca. 15 pp.);
- three letters of recommendation;
- B.A. or M.A. degree certificates or equivalent in German or a related field that includes evidence of advanced German language skills for non-native German speakers;
- copy of academic transcripts;
- for non-native English speakers or non U.S. citizens: TOEFL test results or equivalent
The deadline for applications is January 15, 2024. Later applications will be given consideration with rolling admissions until late March.
For further questions about the application process, please contact the department administrator Mary Mehalick:
