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Penn State Penn State: College of the Liberal Arts

Department ofGermanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures

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Ph.D. Degree Options

Ph.D. Degree Options

German Literature, Culture and Visual Studies
German Literature, Culture and Visual Studies
German Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
German Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

German Literature and Culture Ph.D.

The graduate program offers students the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the study of the literatures and cultures of German speaking countries from the 18th to the 21st century. Graduate seminars examine: critical histories of German literature and art, the Holocaust, film studies and visual culture, Asian-German networks, German empire and colonialism, aesthetics and philosophy. Students also have the opportunity to participate in Penn State’s dual-title doctoral degree in Visual Studies. For a list of faculty teaching and researching in Visual Studies, see here. Penn State’s German department offers an intense scholarly environment that nurtures interdisciplinary research. Students in the Ph.D. program are grounded in German intellectual history and encouraged to write in global contexts. The German department works closely with Comparative Literature, Philosophy, History, Jewish Studies, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Art History.
 

German Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Ph.D.

The interdisciplinary Ph.D. in German Linguistics and Applied Linguistics prepares students to conduct systematic examinations of how the German language is structured, how it is acquired, how it is used across varied linguistic communities and by individuals, and how it is taught and learned. In addition to the traditional subfields of linguistic inquiry, faculty members offer courses in second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, language contact, language change, sociolinguistics, and Pennsylvania German. Alongside courses in German, students also take coursework in other departments, including Spanish, Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Psychology and Communication Sciences and Disorders. Students also have the opportunity to participate in Penn State’s dual-title doctoral degree in Language Science and may apply for admission into the LINDIV program, which is a training grant that focuses on linguistic diversity in the context of human-technology interaction. Many students also participate in collaborative research and outreach opportunities with graduate students and professors in other departments through the Center for Language Science. 

For more information about degree requirements, check the Graduate Student Handbook.