The German Studies Program provides a wide array of opportunities to explore and discover the German-speaking world and to engage critically and deeply with the field of German Studies. We offer a variety of language and culture courses at all levels, including a new “Junior-Senior Seminar” taught entirely in German; both a German Studies major and minor; several unique study abroad options for students with all levels of German language skills; co-curricular and extracurricular events and activities that occur year round, including a weekly Kaffeestunde (coffee hour), film screenings, and a Stammtisch; a German Club run entirely by students; a yearly theater production; and of course the Max Kade German House, which serves as the student hub for our program.

We believe strongly in the liberal arts. Our topics courses reflect this commitment as they all address various aspects of the German-speaking world, including:

• migration and diversity
• environmentalism and climate change
• fascism and the new right
• Germanness and national identity
• understanding and representing the Holocaust
• the “Faust theme" in German literature and film
• psychoanalysis
• science fiction and the posthuman
• the history of the Berlin Wall
• incarceration and imprisonment
• literary, philosophical, and musical romanticism

These classes urge students to think critically about the ways in which literature, film, music, architecture, and/or the visual arts have engaged with such topics. Our “topics” courses often cross disciplinary boundaries and are cross-listed with other departments and programs, as our faculty members conduct research and teach in a variety of different fields including Comparative Literature; History; Philosophy; Music; Film and Media Studies; Feminist and Gender Studies; Race, Ethnicity and Migration Studies; and Environmental Studies.