Check out this video featuring our current MA and PhD students!
At Illinois, we offer both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in German Studies. We also offer a Five-Year BA/MA degree for current undergraduates at the University of Illinois. And, we offer the Bachelor of Arts in Teaching and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees.
The program welcomes both students interested in an academic career and students who plan to pursue non-academic career paths after their degrees. We have examples of successful graduates in both areas, and our post-degree job placement rate is extraordinary.
We fully fund our graduate students with full tuition and fee waivers as well as competitive teaching or research assistantships or fellowships.
Our graduate program in German Studies stands out in a number of ways:
Our Faculty is Here to Help You!
*All faculty members have won major awards, distinctions, and fellowships for research, teaching, and/or mentoring. We all pursue active research agendas. Our graduate students benefit by being exposed to cutting-edge research and often have a chance to participate in faculty projects as research assistants or collaborators for conference and other event organization. We edit several top journals in the field of German studies right here, and our graduate students have the chance to serve as research/editorial assistants.
*The Department regularly hosts visiting faculty members from German-speaking countries under the auspices of the Max Kade Distinguished Professorship Program. This expands the already wide expertise of the faculty and also helps students to connect directly to German-speaking academia.
*An outstanding roster of affiliated faculty members in other departments indicates the interdisciplinary strength of research and teaching in Germanic languages, literatures, and cultures on campus.
*Besides the profiles on their departmental page, many faculty members have their own personal websites, which often have additional information on their interests and current activities. Check these out as well to get a fuller picture!
Additional Resources
*The University of Illinois has one of the largest, best-stocked university libraries in the world with outstanding collections in all fields of Germanic languages and literatures. From rare books such as the Gutenberg bible and early modern Emblem books to a large collection of literature during National Socialism, and a rapidly growing collection of literature by contemporary minority writers, the state-of-the art library and its excellent staff have much to offer.
*There are numerous units, interdisciplinary programs, and research groups on campus that students can take advantage of in a variety of ways—from taking additional courses, attending lectures, workshops, and reading groups, to obtaining fellowships and conference or research travel support. Here are just a few:
Education Justice Project (EJP)
Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies Initiative (HGMS)
Illinois-Sweden Program for Educational and Research Exchange (INSPIRE)
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH)
Program in Jewish Culture and Society
Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE)
Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Our Students
*Our graduate students have a wide variety of interests, academic backgrounds, and international experiences. Check out this video featuring our current MA and PhD students here!
*Recent graduates work in a variety of institutions, both inside and outside academia.
*The Department regularly recognizes students’ outstanding work by providing awards and fellowships during an annual awards ceremony.
*The Department encourages students to present their work both on campus and off-campus. Conference travel funding is available.
*The German Colloquium is specifically designated for graduate student work in progress. Here you can try out a talk before presenting at a conference or receive feedback before submitting an essay for publication.
*Graduate students have the opportunity to participate in one of the department’s exchange programs with German universities.
*Our graduate students have been successful in obtaining dissertation completion fellowships from the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics (SLCL). This fellowship enables students to concentrate fully on their research for an entire academic year.
*Excellent pedagogical training ensures that many graduate students are regularly listed on the “list of excellent teachers” for their classroom performance.
*In addition to firm training in language pedagogy, students also have the chance to build their teaching portfolio by assisting in general education courses such as “Fairy Tales,” “Viking Sagas,” “Holocaust Literature,” or “German Popular Culture.”
*The department periodically offers professional development workshops covering such topics as the publication process or preparing a CV; our Graduate College is also an excellent resource.
*Students contribute to the life of the department in other ways as well, be it in curating the ongoing departmental film series or offering the Kaffeestunde.
For information about applying to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, click here.
Director of Graduate Studies: Carl Niekerk
APPLICATION DEADLINE (for full consideration for financial aid): January 1 of each year (to begin graduate study in the following fall).