Graduate Studies in German (MA/PhD), Michigan State University

The German Studies program at Michigan State University welcomes applications to both MA and PhD programs for the 2021-2022 academic year. Our graduate program provides students with financial support, individualized mentoring, and the flexibility to design a course of study to realize their personal and professional goals. The faculty members in our program embrace an integrated vision of language and cultural studies that prepares students for a variety of careers in academia and beyond. Graduates have pursued careers in education and education technology at institutions in the US and abroad. For its innovative approach to both undergraduate and graduate curricula, the MSU German Program was recognized as an American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Center of Excellence.

Graduate students in German Studies at MSU:

• obtain a solid grounding in the core disciplinary areas of literature, culture, and language studies
• receive personalized mentoring in teaching and research from dedicated faculty members
• collaborate with faculty on research projects and publications
• conduct innovative research, including hybrid dissertations
• enhance their German Studies degree with graduate certificates in Digital Humanities, Museum Studies, or College Foreign Language Teaching
• explore creative and varied career options through colloquia and individual advising
• teach at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum
• gain professional experience in study abroad programs at an institution that is nationally recognized as a leader in education abroa
• engage with the community through service opportunities

Please see our website for more information on the degree programs in German at MSU.

Funding

Competitive funding packages include a combination of fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships. The program provides various opportunities for full summer support: e.g., through faculty-led collaborative research projects, education abroad assistantships, online language instruction, and individual research fellowships. Generous funding is available for conferences, archival work, and other scholarly and professional activities.

Faculty

Our faculty members are recognized nationally and internationally for their scholarship, and they have strong interdisciplinary ties to other programs at MSU, including Second Language Studies, Global Studies, Digital Humanities, Jewish Studies, Gender Studies, and Film and Visual Studies. For more information on our areas of expertise, please see the individual faculty profiles.

Collaboration

Collaboration is central to the intellectual community of our program, and we strive to provide our graduate students with unique opportunities to work together with faculty in research, teaching, outreach, and other professional activities. Students acquire professional experience in education abroad leadership, co-teaching a popular summer program in Germany. Students contribute to existing research projects, like the Graphic Narratives Network, an initiative co-founded by German faculty members that seeks to advance text-image studies broadly and encourages archival research in the MSU Libraries’ world-renowned Comic Arts Collection. Max Kade Fellows shadow faculty mentors in upper-level German courses to gain a deeper understanding of and hands-on experience with a wider range of types of teaching and pedagogies. The Center for Language Teaching Advancement gives students the chance to reach beyond the university and teach diverse ages of language learners in the Greater Lansing community. Digital Humanities at MSU provides further opportunities for collaboration as well as strong research support.

Founded in 1855, Michigan State University is a premier public research university with a diverse student body. Neighboring Michigan’s capital city of Lansing, the MSU campus is only a 2-hour bus ride to Detroit and a 4-hour train ride to Chicago.

For more information on German Studies at Michigan State University, please contact Lynn L. Wolff, Director of Graduate Studies (lwolff@msu.edu).

Application information is available here. Please note that we no longer require the GRE, and application fee waivers are available upon request.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. For full funding consideration, apply by December 31, 2020.