Germanic Languages and Literatures

Germanic Languages & Literatures News

Congratulations to Anne Olmstead!

Congratulations to Anne Olmstead, Office Manager in the Departments of Germanic Languages & Literatures and French & Italian! Anne is a recipient of this year's Marita Romine Distinguished Service Award in the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics. Anne not only demonstrates the...

Congratulations Basil Agu!

We are pleased to present the SLCL Dissertation Completion Fellowship awardees for this year. These fellowships provide advanced doctoral students with an academic year of support to complete their dissertations. Evaluation criteria includes the quality of the proposal;...

Register Now for Great Fall Classes!

Check out this page for more information about GLL's Fall 2025 offerings. Add a German major or minor, fulfill General Education...

Enlightenment Anthropology: Defining Humanity in an Era of Colonialism By Carl Niekerk

In this book, Carl Niekerk probes the origins of modern anthropology in the European Enlightenment, foregrounding how the knowledge transfer between an international array of natural historians and public intellectuals—including Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon; Voltaire; Denis Diderot;...

Congratulations to Prof. Stephanie Hilger on her new book!

Exploring 18th-century medicine's construction of individuals with non-standard sexual anatomy as “hermaphrodites”, this book focuses on the genre of the case history from three different languages and national contexts-British, French, and German. Medicalizing Difference...

Remembering 1989: Future Archives of Public Protest

This account of the “laboratory of radical democracy” in the months before East Germany’s absorption in the West challenges memories of Germany’s reunification. For many, 1989 is an iconic date, one we associate with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. The...

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Career Paths in Germanic Languages and Literatures

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Comprehensive curriculum in language, culture, and linguistics

In addition to courses in German for the complete immersion experience, we offer numerous classes in English, most of which fulfill General Education requirements. Undergraduates can also pursue study abroad in Vienna or elsewhere in the German-speaking world via Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange, and our graduate students regularly win fellowships to do research at a wide range of universities and libraries in Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia. Join us!

Illinois in Vienna Graduate study and research

GER 465 - Die deutsche Sprache in Österreich

Explore the German language in Austria from a sociolinguistic perspective.

GER 465

GER 473 - Protest Memory: Post-1989 Literature, Film, and Theory

We will discuss a diverse archive of post-1989 literature, film, and memorials in order to reexamine the so-called Peaceful Revolution and the interval year of ’89-90.

GER 473

GER 396 - Babylon Berlin

In 1929, Berlin was known to be a hedonistic city of extremes: corrupt wealth existed alongside destitute poverty and an underground world of wild parties and glamour.

GER 396

GER 201 - German Popular Culture: Tales of Horror

It is hard to overstate how central vampires and zombies, doppelgänger and killers, ghosts and artificial humans—haunted hybrids—have been to the construction of German identity.

GER 201

GER 261 - Holocaust on Film

We investigate literary and filmic representations of the Holocaust.

GER 261

Germanic Department Courses Spring 2025

Check us out in Spring 2025! Some of our courses are highlighted here, and contact Charlie Webster (cwebste@illinois.edu) for more information about our full range of GER and SCAN offerings!

2025 Course Offerings