Ph.D. Fellowships in German Literature and Critical Thought

The Graduate Program in German Literature and Critical Thought at Northwestern University is currently inviting applications for Ph.D. candidates starting September 2021.

The Department of German at Northwestern is a dynamic, diverse department with strengths in modern critical theory and philosophy, poetics 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 broadly described as critical thought.

The program encourages innovation and work across disciplines. It is closely allied with other departments at Northwestern, as well as with its vibrant network of interdisciplinary clusters and programs such as 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. 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. Two 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 and practical experience in teaching at the college level. The department is also able to fund 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 outside grant acquisition and academic job placement, and actively works to support graduate students with academic mentoring, professional training (including resources for alt-ac training and support), 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, Director of Graduate Studies, 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, 2021.