Graduate Programs in Germanic Languages & Literatures at Harvard University Friday, January 2, 2015, 5 p.m. (Application Deadline) Beginnings: The study of German language and literature at Harvard University began in 1825 with the appointment of Carl Follen, an impassioned anti- monarchist and poet, who had escaped political persecution in Giessen. By the 1860s, all sophomores were required to study the language. After such Harvard notables as George Ticknor, H. W. Longfellow, and J. R. Lowell had given some coverage to major German poets (from Walther von der Vogelweide to Goethe) in their lectures, a graduate program in German was organized in the 1870s, with the first PhD granted in 1880. The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures was subsequently established in 1897. Further Development: In 1903 Kuno Francke founded Harvard’s Germanic Museum, now called the Busch-Reisinger Museum, which would soon comprise the most extensive and comprehensive collections of Germanic art in the United States. Over the course of the 20th Century the study of Germanic literature and cultural history developed under the influence of prestigious Germanists who emigrated from Europe, including Karl Viëor, Bernhard Blume, Dorrit Cohn, and Karl S. Guthke. Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer also arrived in 1937 to serve as the first professors of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, well underscoring the central role that Germanic Studies would play at Harvard. Today: Since the 1970s the Department continued to develop along fresh theoretical and methodological lines, with an increased inclination toward interdisciplinarity. Orientations like narratology and structuralism, Rezeptionsästhetik, post-structuralism, and cultural studies, significantly redirected and enhanced graduate work in German and Nordic languages and literatures from the Middle Ages to the present. Today, the faculty remains committed to interdisciplinary research, focusing on a range of areas, including Film and Media Studies, Intellectual History, Critical Theory, Philosophy, Art History, Psychoanalysis, Anthropology, Visual Studies, Musicology, and the History of Science. Specific emphases include Nordic mythology and folklore, (Post)-Colonialism, Gender Studies, Ethnopoetics, Children’s Literature, Ethics and Body- Poetics. Graduate Program: A major strength of our graduate program is its flexibility. Under the guidance of the Director of Graduate Studies, students develop a plan of study that aims, on the one hand, for broad general knowledge of the field as a whole and, on the other, for special emphases of their own. We also offer older Germanic Languages, notably Old Norse, as well as courses on specific aspects of the medieval period. A doctoral program in the older languages is available: it draws on resources in related disciplines such as English and medieval history. Teaching is required for the PhD degree, not only because sound training and practice are essential for a career in higher education, but also because it provides transferable skills in many other careers for which a PhD may be helpful. Graduate students normally begin teaching in their third year of study. The rich resources that Harvard offers scholars in Germanic studies include Widener Library’s holdings, which many consider the best German studies research collection in North America; Houghton Library, with its collection of medieval manuscripts and the papers of such major German poets as Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Brecht, and Heine, as well as annotated typescripts of W.G. Sebald’s prose works. The Harvard Film Archive houses a unique collection of 35- and 16-millimeter German films, videos, press booklets, and photographs. In addition to the vast university resources, the Department regularly hosts numerous events, conferences, and colloquia, organized by faculty and students alike. Courses of study are enhanced by multiple lecture series and workshops in the Department and in related departments, as well as in the Mahindra Humanities Center, the Center for European Studies, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and elsewhere. For further information, please visit our website: german.fas.harvard.edu. For application information and forms, see: gsas.harvard.edu/apply Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University 12 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Contact: Prof. Judith Ryan, Director of Graduate Studies: [email protected] Prof. John Hamilton, Chair: [email protected]
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:47:33 +0000
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