College: College of Letters and Science
Designation: Department
Major: German
Degrees Offered: M.A., Ph.D.
Other: Ph.D. Minor
Tracks: Literature and culture before 1600, literature and culture after 1600, and linguistics
Faculty: Professors Vanderwal Taylor (chair), Adler, Chavez, Gross, Howell, James, Kaiser, Kluge, Louden, Salmons, Silberman, Steakley; Associate Professors Calomino, Mani, Moedersheim
The Department of German's graduate program is recognized internationally for its comprehensive coverage of German studies and the rigorous preparation of candidates for its graduate degrees. The department is consistently among the most highly rated in the country and historically is near the top of the list of North American institutions in number of graduate degrees granted in German. Graduates teach in colleges and universities across the country and around the world, affirming the department's reputation and significance.
The breadth of the graduate program enables candidates to build a repertoire of skills and discipline-specific knowledge before specializing at the doctoral level. The department offers curricula leading to the master of arts and the doctor of philosophy degrees in German, with specialization in fields of literature and culture (before 1600 and after 1600) and linguistics (including applied linguistics). The department also offers extensive course work and research opportunities in Dutch language, literature, culture, and linguistics. In addition, degree candidates can undertake interdisciplinary work with other units on campus including art history, communication arts, comparative literature, history, linguistics, musicology, Scandinavian studies, and women's studies. The Department of German also cooperates closely with the interdepartmental programs in European studies, medieval studies, and Jewish studies.
Of the approximately 50 candidates who completed the Ph.D. in the department since the 1990s, 75 percent hold teaching and/or research positions at universities and colleges in the United States, Europe, Australia, and other countries. Others have careers with libraries, publishing houses, or government agencies.
Financial support is competitive and offered to a limited number of students in the form of a multiyear guarantee of fellowship and/or teaching assistantship support.
The department is the home of the quarterly "Monatshefte", one of the leading international scholarly journals in the field of German studies. It publishes articles dealing with the literature and culture of German-speaking countries. The "Journal of Germanic Linguistics," journal of the Society for Germanic Linguistics, is also produced in the department. The "JGL" is dedicated to scholarship in Germanic linguistics and philology, publishing articles and book reviews dealing with the full range of Germanic languages. The department additionally provides an editorial home for Diachronica, an international journal covering all aspects of historical and comparative linguistics. The Wisconsin Workshop, an annual event organized by the department each fall since 1969, provides a forum for scholarly discussion concerning literary and cultural topics. Speakers include university faculty and invited scholars from North American universities and from abroad. The proceedings are regularly published in book form. Additional symposia and conferences are scheduled on such varied topics as linguistics, German-American studies, pedagogical issues, contemporary German artists, and Dutch language, literature, and culture.
The Roundtable is the department's lecture series for the presentation of original research and critical scholarly work by faculty members, advanced graduate students, and distinguished visitors as well as for readings by authors and poets. The department has a long tradition of sponsoring distinguished visiting professors and exchange professors to the campus, both from North American institutions and from Europe, thereby maintaining active contact with other programs and new directions in German studies. A variety of study abroad opportunities exist for graduate students in Germany and the Netherlands.
The university's Memorial Library contains one of the best German research collections in the country; the library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society is renowned especially for its German-American holdings. Further, the department maintains a "Handbibliothek" with several thousand volumes of primary and secondary literature for the benefit of its faculty and graduate students. The Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, founded in 1983, is an international center for research on German-American history, language, and culture. Its research and outreach missions aim to provide better understanding of how German-speaking immigrants to this country helped shape their new environment and how they have been shaped by it. The Center for German and European Studies, created in 1998 with support from the German Marshall Fund, is helping educate a new generation of experts on Germany and the new Europe across a wide variety of disciplines. It supports research and teaching of interdisciplinary collaboratives and seminars, and provides fellowships for graduate students interested in German and European studies.
The faculty in the Department of German enjoys an international reputation for its breadth, for the quality of its published research, and for its leadership and active participation in all aspects of the discipline. For example, Professor Emeritus Jost Hermand, who holds the prestigious Vilas Chair in German Studies, has been a major influence in shaping the practice of modern "Germanistik" in the United States and Germany. Other emeriti members of the faculty have received the German honor of the "Bundesverdienstkreuz" for their lifelong contributions to the understanding of Germany's role in the modern world, and both faculty and graduate teaching assistants have been honored by the university for excellence in teaching.
The faculty's diverse interests are reflected in leadership roles in statewide, national, and international professional organizations including: Modern Language Association; American Association of Teachers of German; German Studies Association; Women in German; American Association for Netherlandic Studies; Society for German-American Studies; Internationale Vereniging voor Neerlandistiek; Society for Germanic Linguistics; American Association of University Supervisors, Coordinators, and Directors of Foreign Language Programs; American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages; CALICO; Internationale Vereinigung fuer germanische Sprache und Literaturwissenschaft; Germanistenverband; American Comparative Literature Association; International Society for Philosophy and Literature; Society for Cinema Studies; International Society for Emblem Studies; International Brecht Society; North American Heine Society; International Herder Society; International Arnold Zweig Society; International Peter Weiss Society; International Society for the Study of Time; Schiller Society; and Goethe Society.
The faculty's research strengths include historical and synchronic linguistics; applied linguistics, second language acquisition, and foreign language education; the study of literature in its sociocultural context (both pre-1750 and modern); 18th-century studies; contemporary German literature and culture; multicultural literature and cosmopolitanism; literary and cultural theory; Dutch literature and linguistics; and interdisciplinary areas such as literature and other arts, German-Americana, German-Jewish relations, women writers and feminist criticism, German gay culture and history, and German cinema.
Admission to the graduate program in German is highly competitive. Although most entering graduate students complete their undergraduate work at North American universities and colleges, a small number of international students regularly join the department.
Applicants for admission to graduate study in the German program are expected to demonstrate a strong record of prior and potential academic achievement. Applications are judged on the basis of the previous academic record, Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores, the statement of purpose, study-abroad experience, and letters of recommendation. Applicants with a B.A. in German must have a cumulative undergraduate GPA of at least 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) on the equivalent of the last 60 semester credits and a GPA of at least 3.50 in German courses beyond the second-year level. Students with an M.A. in German must have a GPA in graduate work of at least 3.7 on a 4.0 scale. In special cases applicants who do not fulfill the above expectations may be admitted on probation.
All applicants must submit official transcripts of all university course work (or equivalents, including study abroad), Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores, a personal statement explaining the reasons for graduate study, a current c.v. or resume, a writing sample in German, and three letters of recommendation that evaluate previous study and potential for graduate study. International applicants must also provide TOEFL, MELAB, or IELTS scores, a financial statement form included with the application materials, and, if applying for a teaching assistantship, a ten-minute cassette tape recording with a sample of the applicant's spoken English.
Application to the UW-Madison Graduate School is an online procedure, with supporting documentation mailed to the Department of German. Applicants should contact the department early in the fall if they wish additional information. Visits to the UW-Madison campus are welcomed by the faculty and graduate students.
For more information: Graduate Secretary, Department of German, 818 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1557; 608/262-4628; fax 608/262-7949; german@mhub.facstaff.wisc.edu; german.lss.wisc.edu.