Primary Faculty: Professors CONERMANN (Director of Graduate Studies for PhD students), HAKE (Director of Graduate Studies for MA students); Associate Professors ASHLIMAN, COLIN, HARRIS-SCHENZ (Associate Dean, Faculty and College of Arts and Sciences), MUENZER (Chair), von DIRKE (Undergraduate Major Advisor); Lecturer HOECHERL-ALDEN (Director of Language Studies)

Affiliated Faculty (Adjunct faculty and those with primary appointments in other areas): Professor RINGER (Andrew Mellon Professor, History); Associate Professor POST (Adjunct)

Emeritus Faculty: Professors JONAS, PFEFFER

The department offers programs leading to the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Languages and Literatures.

Students applying for graduate study must indicate if they intend to pursue the PhD degree. PhD students are normally expected to have completed an undergraduate program in German with a minimum average grade of A- (3.70). Students with undergraduate training in fields other than German can be given consideration for full graduate status if they possess the background in German necessary to compete successfully in graduate-level courses. Students who complete their MA at the University of Pittsburgh must successfully undergo a preliminary evaluation in their last term of MA study. Students who enter the program with an MA from other institutions must do so by the end of their first year of study after the MA. This evaluation consists of a one-hour oral qualifying examination and the submission of a research paper which in the student's judgment represents his/her best scholarly work. Students without an MA in German who continue PhD work may receive the MA after completing their MA course work, their research project (by the end of their fifth term), and their qualifying examination. Students must submit a second paper (12 pages) written either in German or English, depending on the language of the research paper which was part of the preliminary evaluation.

The requirements for the MA degree include 30 credits of graduate seminars within the department and an MA project (up to three credits of GER 2000). All seminars counting toward the MA must be taken for letter grades. With the approval of the graduate director, six of the thirty seminar credits may be taken outside the department. All Teaching Assistants/Fellows must successfully pass German 2970 as a basis for continuing financial support as a Teaching Assistant or Fellow.

MA students who wish to continue for the PhD may be exempted from the MA project requirement provided they have taken at least one of their graduate seminars at the 3000 level and petitioned the faculty to substitute three additional credits of course work for the MA project. Students writing the MA project should select an advisor by the end of their second term. The completed paper (about 35- 50 pages) should be submitted during the week following the Spring Term recess to the faculty advisor.

In addition to the satisfactory completion of courses (B average), students must demonstrate a high level of proficiency in writing both German and English by submitting for departmental approval at least one paper written in German and one paper written in English. They must also demonstrate reading proficiency in an additional language by the end of their last term of study. The language may be either one taught in secondary schools, or one central to the German cultural traditions, or one related to a student's research interest.

Courses completed outside the department may be designated to fulfill established requirements for certificates in cognate programs (for example–Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Western European Studies, and Cultural Studies), or they may be used to develop a subspecialty in connection with German (Second Language Acquisition, Film Studies, History, History of Art and Architecture, Jewish Studies, Music, Philosophy, or another language, for example). The department defines course requirements for appropriate subspecialties in consultation with other departments and programs. In all cases, however, students opting for a six-course subspecialty will complete at least 12 credits of their outside course work (four courses) for letter grades.

In addition to the satisfactory completion of courses (A- average), students must demonstrate a high level of proficiency in both spoken and written German and English. (They must submit for departmental approval at least one paper written in German and one paper written in English). In addition to the MA language requirement, they must acquire reading proficiency in either French or Latin and demonstrate it by the end of the term when they complete their dissertation prospectus.

Students entering the program without an MA degree normally take the comprehensive examination during their third year of full-time study, but no later than the end of their fourth year. Students entering the program with an MA normally take this examination during their third and fourth terms of full-time study. At the time of the comprehensive examination, PhD program students without an MA must have completed at least 12 three-credit courses within the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. Students who have previously earned an MA are expected to complete six such courses. At least two of these courses are to be taken at the 3000 level. In addition, students without an MA degree must have completed six additional credits of course work (S/N or letter grade). These credits may be earned in approved courses outside the department.

The PhD comprehensive examination, which cannot be retaken, is normally taken within one academic year over two consecutive terms. It consists of six written sections, each three hours long, as well as a one-hour oral general examination. The written sections are based on topics and questions chosen by the student in accordance with specific guidelines and in consultation with an examining committee of three faculty members appointed by the graduate director. They include at least one literary period, one genre, one author, one theoretical issue, and two additional topics selected by the student. The oral section of the examination offers opportunities to pursue issues raised in the written sections, including possible connections between topics. It also affords students an opportunity to demonstrate general familiarity with the history of German literature and culture. The comprehensive examination must receive at least an A- grade to qualify the student for the PhD.

In order to demonstrate academic promise, PhD students are expected to submit to the faculty two papers (one in English and one in German). Both papers are to be handed in at the beginning of the term in which a student takes the comprehensive examination. The papers may be seminar papers, a thesis prospectus, or an independent research project.

With the formal approval of a thesis prospectus (10-15 pages) by the doctoral committee, students are admitted to PhD candidacy. Students writing dissertations must meet with their full doctoral committee once a year.

The thesis must be approved by the doctoral committee after a public defense.

• Pennsylvania Instructional Certificate I, in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education.
  
  
• TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages), in cooperation with the Department of Linguistics.
  
  
• Additional cooperative degrees are under development.