Duke University
Graduate Program in German Studies
Durham, North Carolina 27708-0256

http://www.german.duke.edu/

  • Innovative interdisciplinary program with strengths in theory, literature, history, music, art history, and gender studies
  • Flexible and individualized program of study
  • Full financial support for minimum of five years
  • Committed mentoring and professional development
  • Gateway into the intellectual riches of Duke and area universities

CONTENTS
Overview
Course of Study and Degree Requirements
Teaching
Research and Study Abroad
Admission
Financial Support
Resources and Affiliations
Life at Duke and the Research Triangle
Faculty
Selected Graduate Course Offerings
Why German Studies at Duke?

An Overview
Duke University’s interdisciplinary doctoral program in German Studies responds to the fundamental reorganization of the humanities that has been unfolding for the past two decades. It does so with a graduate program that integrates the best of scholarly traditions past and present. The Duke German Studies program attends both to the study of literature as a preeminent resource for understanding Germany’s historical and present communities, and to a model of cultural studies that fosters the exploration of other forms of cultural production and social expression. Under the guidance of faculty whose teaching and research cover the full range of German cultural texts, graduate students study the various intellectual and historical genealogies that connect their chosen fields of study, such as literary history, political science, social history, religious studies, medieval and early modern studies, musicology, aesthetics, philosophy, or art history.

The program’s structure encourages students to develop an individual program of study with competence in a literary period and a topic of advanced research developed in accordance with their interests. Students study with core faculty in the German department and with affiliated German Studies faculty drawn from a wide variety of departments and programs. Interdisciplinary work is supported and encouraged. Recent dissertation topics have
included the following:

  • Jewishness, Blackness and Gender in German Colonial Discourse
  • Corporeality in the Work of Theodor Adorno
  • The Development of Middlebrow Publishing in Wilhelmine Germany
  • Violence and Modernism in Musil, Kafka, and Canetti
  • The Rhetoric of Space in the Arthurian Romance and the Minnerede
  • Poiesis/Autopoiesis: A Systems Theoretical Approach to Rolf Dieter Brinkmann's Literary Technique
  • Breaking with Tradition: Europe as a Political Project in Germany’s Christian Democratic Union
  • Love, Language and the Economics of Exchange in Konrad Fleck's “Flore und Blanscheflur”

German Studies graduates are employed primarily in German departments; therefore, German literature remains central to the course structure. So powerful, however, is the movement toward interdisciplinary thinking, particularly in contemporary Germanic studies, that graduates from our program are well positioned for placement in the new disciplinary configurations found today in many universities and colleges. Graduates from this program may also consider careers in other professions, such as publishing, journalism, foreign service, international business and cultural relations, where advanced competence in German language, culture, and literature is valued.

Course of Study and Degree Requirements
The Ph.D. degree
A total of 16 courses are required. The program grants transfer of credit for coursework taken elsewhere that meets departmental and Graduate School guidelines. Students take courses with core faculty in the German department and with German Studies faculty in departments and programs such as Art History, Film & Video, History, Literature, Music, Political Science, Religion, and Women's Studies. New students meet many of these faculty members in a team-taught seminar during their first term of study, which is devoted to exploring the field of German Studies. Students build on their experiences and the relationships they develop as they prepare for their preliminary exams and dissertation project.

In collaboration with their primary advisor, students assemble a committee of faculty to serve on their preliminary exam, dissertation chapter review, and dissertation defense. The preliminary exam, normally taken at the end of the third year, ensures competency in a teaching field and establishes a comprehensive intellectual framework for the dissertation project. After passing the preliminary exam, students formulate a dissertation topic, which is distributed to the faculty committee as a dissertation prospectus. The dissertation chapter review normally takes place before the end of the fourth year. A dissertation defense is also required.

The M.A. degree
While the department expects most graduate students to pursue and earn Ph.D. degrees, students wishing to leave the program with an M.A. degree may do so. To be eligible for an M.A. degree, students must have completed all coursework. To receive an M.A. degree, they must either have passed their preliminary exam, or they may choose to write and defend a substantial thesis. Students wishing to apply only for the M.A. degree should contact the Director of Graduate Studies (see Admission, below).

Teaching
Graduate student teaching is integral to the program. Graduate students receive extensive teacher training and mentoring, and have the opportunity to teach undergraduate courses in German language, literature, and culture at all levels. Beginning in their second year, students normally teach one course per semester. In addition to teaching workshops and a dedicated foreign language pedagogy seminar, students receive on-going, constructive feedback from professors who visit their courses each term. Outstanding teachers may have the opportunity to develop and teach an advanced undergraduate literature or culture course based on their dissertation research.

Research and Study Abroad
In addition to the open competition for Fulbright and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellowships, Duke University participates in several exchange programs with German universities (the Humboldt University and the Free University in Berlin, and the University of Potsdam). German Studies students are encouraged to apply to these programs either during their years of coursework (arrangements exist for transferring credit) or while working on the dissertation.

Admission
The German Studies Program admits several new students annually. These students will have most likely explored German Studies as undergraduates or in M.A. programs at other institutions and in a wide variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

A Current Graduate School Bulletin and an application packet may be obtained by contacting:
Graduate School Admissions Office Tel: (919) 684-3913
127 Allen Building email: grad-admissions@acpub.duke.edu
Duke University, Box 90056 Additional information is available at
Durham, NC 27708-0065 http://www.gradschool.duke.edu/
You may apply online at http://www.gradschool.duke.edu/admissions/

The Graduate School’s postmark deadline for applications for fall admission is December 31. A completed application includes a Statement of Purpose, official transcripts from all postsecondary institutions attended, three letters of recommendation, official scores on the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination, and a non-refundable application fee. A sample of the candidate's critical writing is required and should be sent directly to the Director of Graduate Studies:

Professor James Rolleston, Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Germanic Languages and Literature
116L Old Chemistry Building, Box 90256
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0256
(919) 660-3162
jroll@duke.edu

The Director of Graduate Studies welcomes inquiries for further information about the program and application procedures. See the German Department Web site for updated contact information: http://www.german.duke.edu/staff.html, or call the Department at (919) 660-3160.

Financial Support
Duke University is committed to offering five years of full financial support for each student admitted to the graduate program in German Studies. Included are tuition, registration, health and recreation fees, and fellowships, as well as teaching stipends for years two through five. Strong applicants to the graduate program will be nominated for additional stipend support through University fellowships. Competitive support for dissertation research beyond the fifth year is also available, and the department encourages and supports applications by its advanced graduate students. Graduate students may also receive dissertation travel awards, summer research grants, and travel support for delivering papers at conferences.

For detailed information on current tuition and fee schedules, see the most recent Graduate School Bulletin: http://registrar.duke.edu/bulletins/Graduate/2000/

For information on loans for graduate education, consult the Graduate School Bulletin or request forms from the Financial Aid Coordinator, Graduate School, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0065.

For more information, see: http://www.gradschool.duke.edu/financialaid/

Resources and Affiliations
In addition to the German department core faculty, the program has committed affiliated German Studies faculty drawn from Duke's major Arts & Sciences departments. Many faculty members from both groups also teach in established interdisciplinary programs: Film and Video, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Graduate Program in Literature, and Women's Studies. Duke University is committed to promoting interdisciplinary research, as well as to developing the international dimension of the university community. The Center for European Studies and the Center for International Studies support graduate student research, as well as conferences, lecture series, and cultural programs. Duke’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Writing, and Center for Instructional Technology offer workshops and financial support for graduate student projects related to teaching and the use of technology in teaching and research. The Robertson Scholars Foundation is supporting collaborative projects between the German departments at Duke and the University of North Carolina, and graduate students from both programs may take courses at either university.

The William R. Perkins Library houses over four million volumes. Holdings of special interest include the Harold Jantz Collection (10,530 titles), with many Baroque first edition texts plus extensive resources in early German-Americana; significant Nazi period materials; the Weinmann Collection of Austrian music; the Kanof Collection of Jewish Art, Archeology and Symbolism; and strong collections in 19th - and 20th - century painting and 16th - century graphic arts. All students also have borrowing rights at the Davis Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, only nine miles away.

Life at Duke and the Research Triangle
Founded in 1924, Duke University is recognized around the world as a major research university. The graduate faculty enjoy both national and international distinction. In a total enrollment of 12,100 at Duke, 2,200 are graduate students. As a matter of policy, the Graduate School is small enough to ensure that personal contact remains a central feature of its programs, and that fruitful interaction across disciplines is a common experience.

Duke University is located in Durham, North Carolina, one of three city hubs in what is known as “the Triangle,” a metropolitan area of over 1,100,000 residents. To the southwest is Chapel Hill (twenty minutes) and to the east is the state capital, Raleigh (twenty-five minutes). The sunny climate and moderate cost of living attract many people to the Triangle, which has all the amenities of a larger urban environment. With its major universities and research institutes the area offers a dynamic and energetic social and cultural life. Outdoor recreation is possible all year, and beautiful national and state parks, hiking, and camping areas are in close proximity. In a little over three hours, you can also be on the North Carolina beaches to the east or in the Great Smoky Mountains to the west.

Within the well-known Research Triangle are Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and North Carolina Central University in Durham. Duke has reciprocal agreements with these institutions, enabling students to enroll in off-campus courses and receive Duke credit. Similarly, students from these schools may enroll in classes at Duke. This is but one way Duke graduate students may become acquainted with the larger educational community.

Faculty
German Studies faculty members have achieved distinction in such areas as medieval studies, reformation studies, the philosophical tradition from Kant to Heidegger, modern social and political history with a focus on Nazi German and genocide issues, music history of all periods, contemporary political parties and the welfare state, as well as the canonical premises and advanced expressions of literature and art. (For more information, see: http://www.german.duke.edu/faculty.html)

CORE FACULTY

GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE

Frank L. Borchardt, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins). Professor of German. Renaissance and Reformation Literature, Educational Technology. Author of German Antiquity in Renaissance Myth (1971), and Doomsday Speculation as a Strategy of Persuasion (1990); articles, and book reviews. 660-3161: frankbo@duke.edu

Mariatte Denman, Ph.D. (University of California, Davis). Assistant Professor of German. Gender studies, post-1945 representations of nationhood and gender, theories of comedy, cultural performances of memory and history, and Swiss literature and culture. Articles on the Swiss Nazi Gold Affair and Swiss intellectuals, German national memorial (Neue Wache) and the postwar culture of commemoration, and on postwall plays. Teaching: visual culture of German speaking countries, film studies, and postwall German literature, culture and national identity. 660-3168: mdenman@duke.edu

Peter M. McIsaac, Ph.D. (Harvard). Assistant Professor of German. 19th- and 20th- century German literature and cultural studies; history of the museum; gender theory;and the American reception of German culture. Author of Showing and Telling: Intersections of Collecting, Exhibiting, and German Literature (forthcoming). Other publications include the Fall 1995 issue of German Politics and Society entitled "Germany in the American Mind: The Postwar Reception of German Culture" and "Exhibiting Ottilie: Collecting as a Disciplinary Regime in Goethe's Wahlverwandtschaften" (1997). 660-3170; mcisaac@duke.edu

Michael Morton, Ph.D. (University of Virginia). Associate Professor of German. Age of Goethe. Author of Herder and the Poetics of Thought: Unity and Diversity in "On Diligence in Several Learned Languages," (1989) and The Critical Turn: Studies in Kant, Herder, Wittgenstein, and Contemporary Theory (1993). Articles on Herder, Lenz, Hofmann, Lessing, Hofmannsthal, topics in literary theory and intellectual history. His work deals with areas of intersection between literature and philosophy. 660-3169; mmorton@duke.edu

Thomas Pfau, Ph.D. (SUNY Buffalo). Associate Professor of English and German. Director of Undergraduate Studies. British Romanticism and 19th-century German aesthetic theory and philosophy. Publications include Idealism and the Endgame of Theory: Three Essays by F. W. J. Schelling (1994), Wordsworth's Profession (1997), and Lessons of Romanticism (Durham, 1998) co-edited with Robert F. Gleckner. 681-3098; tpfau@sprintmail.com

Ann Marie Rasmussen, Ph.D. (Yale). Associate Professor of German. Medieval Studies. Gender Studies. Publications include Mothers and Daughters in Medieval German Literature (1997) and co-editor (with Anne L. Klinck) of Medieval Woman's Song: Cross-Cultural Approaches (2002). Articles on medieval German romance texts, Walther von der Vogelweide, medieval poetics and gender, Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan, intellectual history, codicology, and eavesdropping in late medieval German texts. 660-3173; annmarie.rasmussen@duke.edu

James L. Rolleston, Ph.D. (Yale). Professor of German. Director of Graduate Studies. Modern German and comparative literature, author of Rilke in Transition (1970), Kafka's Narrative Theater (1974), Narratives of Ecstasy (1987). Articles on Expressionism, Brecht, Benn, and modern poetry and poetics; on the faculty of the Graduate Program in Literature. 660-3162; jroll@duke.edu

Ingeborg Walther, Ph.D. (University of Michigan). Associate Professor of the Practice of German. Chair and Language Program Director. Second language acquisition theory and practice; contemporary German theater; foreign language and critical pedagogy. Author of The Theater of Franz Xaver Kroetz (1990). Articles and book reviews on contemporary poetry, foreign language pedagogy, cultural literacy, curriculum development. 660-3163; waltheri@duke.edu

AFFILIATED FACULTY

LITERATURE
Sibylle Fischer, Assistant Professor, Graduate Program in Literature. 19th-century literature, contemporary literary theory, nationalism, authoritarianism and authority as political and literary problems, and theories and representations of oral literature.

Fredric Jameson, William A. Lane, Jr., Professor of Comparative Literature, and Chair, Program in Literature. Modernism and postmodernism, Third World literature and cinema, Marx and Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, the modern French novel and cinema, and the Frankfurt School. Author of Marxism and Form (1971), The Prison-House of Language (1972), The Political Unconscious (1981), Late Marxism (1990), Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System (1992), Seeds of Time (1994), Brecht and Method (1998), The Cultural Turn (1998), and Singular Modernity (2002).

Thomas Lahusen, Professor, Graduate Program in Literature. Russian and Soviet literature and culture, Soviet and Chinese film. Author of The Concept of the "New Man" : Forms of Address and Society in Nineteenth-Century Russia (1982), On Synthetism, Mathematics and Other Matters: Zamyatin's Novel "We" (1994 with Edna Andrews and Elena Maksimova), and How Life Writes the Book: Real Socialism and Socialist Realism in Stalin's Russia (Cornell, 1997).

Kenneth Surin, Professor, Graduate Program in Literature. Continental philosophy, German Romanticism, interpretation and ideology, tragedy and revolution, and colonialism and post-colonialism. Author of The Turnings of Darkness and Light: Essays in Philosophical and Systematic Theology (1989), and Theology and the Problem of Evil (1986).

HISTORY
Malachi Hacohen, Associate Professor of History. Modern European intellectual history. Author of a study on Karl Popper and the intellectual life of interwar Vienna (1999). Articles in The Journal of Modern History, The Journal of the History of Ideas, and History and Theory. He plans to work next on the Congress for Cultural Freedom and postwar Atlantic liberalism.

Claudia Koonz, Professor of History. Nazi race and gender theories, indoctrination and socialization, and German public memory of genocide. Author of Mothers in the Fatherland (1987) Becoming Visible: Women in European History (rev. ed., 1987), and The Shaping of the Nazi Conscience: Ethics, Identity and Race (1999).

Thomas Robisheaux, Associate Professor of History. Early modern social and religious history of Germany. Author of Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany (1989). Courses on Reformation Germany, and the social and economic history of Europe. He is currently at work on witchcraft.

ART HISTORY
Hans van Miegroet, Associate Professor of Art and Art History. Economic, social, and political history of early Modern European art, with emphasis on Burgundy, France, the Netherlands, and Germany. Author of books on Konrad Witz (1986) and Gerard David (1989); co-authored studies on Economics of the Arts and Markets and Novelty. Northern Renaissance and Baroque Art.

Kristine Stiles, Associate Professor of Art and Art History. Contemporary art and theory, performance art, and feminism. Focus on aesthetics and global issues in Romania, Israel, and Vietnam. Author of Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art and Thresholds of Control: Destruction Art and Terminal Culture. Her research is especially concerned with the representations of violence, trauma, and destruction internationally.

MUSIC
Bryan Gilliam, Professor of Music. Late 19th- and early 20th-century German music, Richard Strauss’s “Electra” (1991); editor of Richard Strauss: His World and His Work (1992) and Music and Performance during the Weimar Republic (1994); currently editing Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel.

Elizabeth Paley, Assistant Professor of Music. Music narratology, 19th- century melodrama and incidental music, and gender studies. An article, "'The Voice Which Was My Music': Narrative and Nonnarrative Musical
Discourse in Schumann's Manfred," recently appeared in 19th-Century Music.

R. Larry Todd, Professor of Music. 19th-century German music, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn in their social context. Author of Mendelssohn’s Musical Education (1983); editor of Nineteenth- Century Piano Music (1990) and Mendelssohn and His World (1991).

PHILOSOPHY
Benjamin Ward, Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy. Aesthetics, philosophy of music, Kantian ethics, and the Frankfurt School. Focus on Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Foucault. Author of The Romantic Recovery and The Performer’s Imperative.

POLITICAL SCIENCE
Romand Coles, Associate Professor of Political Science. Continental political philosophy from Kant to Adorno, critical theory, existential phenomenology, post-modernism, and Marxist thought. Author of Self/Power/Other: Political Theory and Dialogical Ethics (1992), which examines the thought of Augustine, Foucault, and Merleau-Ponty, and Critical Theory and Receptive Generosity: Critical Theory and the Politics of Caritas, which explores the work of Kant, Adorno, Habermas, and others.

Michael Gillespie, Professor of Political Science. Political philosophy in Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger; relation of religion and politics. Author of Hegel, Heidegger and the Ground of History (1984) and Nihilism Before Nietzsche (1995); editor of Nietzsche’s New Seas: Explorations in Philosophy, Aesthetics and Politics (1988).

Herbert Kitschelt, Professor of Political Science. Comparative public policy, political parties, and social movements in Eastern and Western Europe. Author of The Logics of Party Formation (1989) and Beyond the European Left (1990).

Peter Lange, Professor of Political Science. Provost. Comparative politics, political economy, and 20th- century European politics. Author of Union Democracy and Liberal Corporatism: Exit, Voice and Wage Regulation in Postwar Europe (1984), co-author of Unions, Change and Crisis: French and Italian Union Strategy and the Political Economy (1982).

RELIGION
Hans Hillerbrand, Professor of Religion. German Reformation, and interaction of religion and society. He has written or edited some eleven books and some forty articles. Several of Dr. Hillerbrand's many books on the Reformation have become standard texts. Editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (1996).

DIVINITY SCHOOL
Teresa Berger, Associate Professor of Ecumenical Theology. Ecumenical, liturgical, and feminist theology. She has published research on such subjects as the hymns of Charles Wesley, ecumenical readings of the Scriptures, and gender analysis and liturgical history. Her current teaching focuses on World Christianity, particularly liberation, and feminist theologies from the Third World. Her most recent book is Dissident Daughters: Feminist Liturgies in Global Context (2002).

David C. Steinmetz, Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of the History of Christianity. History of Christianity in the later Middle Ages and Reformation. Numerous books and articles, including Luther and Staupitz (1980), Luther in Context (1986, 2002), and Calvin in Context (1995). General editor of the series, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. He is currently writing a book for Oxford entitled, Divided by a Common Past: Christian Thought in Reformation Europe and is co-editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology. He is the founding president of the American Friends of the Herzog August Bibliothek and a former president of the American Society of Church History.

Selected Graduate Course Offerings
Taught by German Studies Core Faculty:
Sex, Gender, and Love in Medieval German Literature
Theories of Orality and Literacy
Seminar in German Studies
Goethe Seminar
Reason and Imagination: The German Eighteenth Century
German Romanticism
Science and Technology in Nineteenth Century German Culture
The Twentieth Century
Postwar German Literature
German Cinema: Weimar to the Present
Research Methods in Literary Scholarship
Second Language Acquisition Theory and Practice
History of the German Language
Consciousness and Modern Society
Contemporary Theory and the German Tradition
Poetry and Modernity
Literature by Women
Inventing the Museum: Collecting and Cultural Discourses of the Nineteenth Century
Rituals of Commemoration in German Culture

Taught by German Studies Affiliated Faculty:
The Origins of Totalitarianism
Criticism and Literary Theory in the Twentieth Century
Critical Theory – Adorno and Habermas
German Aesthetic Theory
Kant and Foucault
Paradigms of Modern Thought
Literature and Ideology
Topics in Feminist Theory
Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Political Philosophy
Nietzsche’s Political Philosophy
Hegel’s Political Philosophy
Heidegger
History of Netherlandish Art and Visual Culture in a European Context
Art and Memory
Art, Violence and Taboo
History of Sexuality in Europe
Bodies and Texts
The German “Lied”
Selected Topics in Women’s Studies
Marxism and Feminism
Luther and the Reformation in Germany

Why German Studies at Duke?
“I was looking for a small department with an excellent student/faculty ratio. The Duke German Studies Program also appealed to me because it combines disciplinary focus with ample opportunity for interdisciplinary inquiry. A diverse faculty that covers all literary periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st Century allows students to explore things German in breadth and depth, while the Program's emphasis on interdisciplinarity and its close cooperation with the Literature Program, the Women's Studies Program, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and other university-wide programs makes it easy to branch out beyond one's own discipline.”
- Katja Altpeter-Jones

„ . . . the unique, interdisciplinary academic configuration, the breadth of interests on the part of the faculty, the strong ties to the Literature Program, not to mention the excellent five-year funding.”
- Janelle Blankenship

“The graduate students in our department are given the utmost freedom in choosing the content and direction of their studies. The flexible course requirements allow students to explore a wide range of fields/ideas without being compelled to compromise the rigor with which they pursue their core interests. The preliminary exam is also designed to give students a great deal of autonomy in choosing the content of their studies, but within a clearly defined structure that tries to assure that students are not only expanding their knowledge, but also specializing in a particular area of knowledge. Interdisciplinarity is not treated as an end in itself, but as a way of enhancing and giving new perspective to the process of specialization that is the ultimate goal of graduate education.”
- Margo Eastlund

“I came to Duke to study German because it was the only Ph.D. program available which offered a truly interdisciplinary approach to the study of German culture and thought. I believed, and still do, that an interdisciplinary approach to thinking and research provides a more sophisticated and more developed understanding of the questions posed. Duke's Ph.D. program in German Studies has offered me the opportunity to study German thought under professors in various departments, and thus gain an understanding that is informed by a variety of visions.” - Kristen Kramer

“I considered several "conventional" German Ph.D. programs when applying to grad school. Duke's consistent emphasis on interdisciplinarity, one which easily accommodates non-traditional projects such as my own, won out. My own dissertation combines inquiry into (German) cultural studies, political science and history, and Duke professors from all these disciplines have been active, supportive mentors throughout. Financial support for graduate research abroad was also key. Opportunities for study in Germany, many unique to Duke, have invaluably enriched my academic and professional experience.” - Daniel C. Villanueva

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