Graduate Program in German Literature and Critical Thought PhD, Northwestern University

The Department of German, Graduate Program in Literature and Critical Thought at Northwestern University is currently seeking applications for up to four doctoral fellowships starting September 2020.

The Department of German at Northwestern is a dynamic, diverse department with strengths in modern critical theory, philosophy, literary theory, and aesthetics; media studies; theology and religious studies; intellectual and cultural history; psychoanalysis; and German-language literature from the Goethezeit to the present. The graduate program is specifically designed to provide a framework within which students can develop their interest in the relationship between modern German culture and literature and the broad array of discourses that can be broadly described as critical thought. In addition, the department offers the opportunity to participate in Northwestern’s vibrant network of interdisciplinary clusters and programs, including programs in Critical Theory, Comparative Literary Studies, Poetry and Poetics, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Jewish Studies, Global Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies, and Critical Studies in Theater and Performance, allowing students to expand their studies in collaboration with students and faculty across the university. The department has strong ties with several German universities and institutions (including Frankfurt, Munster, and ZfL Berlin) and is closely associated with the Northwestern Paris Program in Critical Theory, directed by Professor Samuel Weber, which offers students additional fellowship aid to spend a year in Paris pursuing research on current topics in philosophy and theory. The department also regularly hosts a yearly Max Kade Distinguished Guest Professor, a prominent scholar from a German university, who teaches a graduate seminar during the Spring quarter.

Students who are awarded doctoral fellowships receive five years of full support (including summers), including tuition, a monthly stipend, and health insurance. Formal acceptance into an interdisciplinary cluster comes with an additional annual stipend of $2500. Two years out of the five years of doctoral support are non-teaching years; for the other three years, students serve as teaching assistants for the department’s undergraduate language and literature program, receiving training as well as practical experience in college-level pedagogy. There are also sufficient funds to support graduate student attendance at professional meetings and conferences, as well as an ongoing lecture and colloquium series curated by the graduate students, which brings in established and upcoming faculty from institutions in the U.S. and abroad. The department has a strong record of both outside grant acquisition and academic job placement, and actively works to support graduate students with academic mentoring, professional training, and transitional funding past the fellowship years.

For further information on the department’s course offerings, faculty, and admissions process, prospective applicants are invited to are invited to consult the department’s website (http://www.german.northwestern.edu), or to contact Professor Erica Weitzman at erica.weitzman@northwestern.edu. Application materials and further information about the application process can be found at the website for the Graduate School of Northwestern University (http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/admission/index.html). The deadline for applications is January 15, 2020.