MA Program and PhD Core
Students entering with a BA enroll in a core program to fulfill requirements for the M.A. Students with a knowledge of another Germanic language-- Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Yiddish -- in addition to German are given the opportunity to study for a "dual language" M.A.; students with a B.A. or equivalent in German can easily acquire sufficient knowledge of another Germanic language to satisfy these requirements by enrolling in the relevant language courses.
Students may also study for an MA in Danish, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, and Yiddish. The core programs for those MAs may be obtained from the Graduate Coordinator. Students coming in with MAs must, as part of their initial registration, consult with the Graduate Advisor about what core requirements (if any) they must complete before taking the Preliminary Examinations.
The core program for the MA in German is as follows:
CULTURE
LINGUISTICS
- Cultural History (usually 382M)
- Intellectual History (usually 382N)
LITERATURE/CULTURE
- Historical/Comparative Linguistics (usually 381.3)
- Synchronic Linguistics (usually 381.2)
OTHER
- two survey courses (386)
SUPPORTING WORK
- Fundamentals of Scholarship (389K.1)
- Pedagogy: Applied Linguistics and the Teaching of German (398T)
- two courses (six hours) of supporting work (usually seminars but may include 389K.6)
- Report or Thesis (6 hours): (398R plus one extra seminar for report option; 698 A & B for thesis)
Students may select one of the four concentrations in the core for their six hours of supporting work: culture, linguistics, literature, or pedagogy.
The core for the "dual language" MA is the same as the core for the MA in German, with the following substitutions:
- either the cultural or the intellectual history course should be taken in the non-German language.
- one of the two literature survey courses should be taken in the literature of the non-German language.
- the six credit hours of supporting work should be taken in the non-German language.
The MA candidate has the option of writing a thesis, an annotated translation, or a report (substantial seminar paper). For the thesis or annotated translation, the student is expected to enroll in six credit hours of supervised writing (698A and B); for the report option, the student enrolls in three hours of supervised writing (398R) and an additional seminar to fulfill the requirement.
Foreign Language Requirement
Students have to demonstrate reading competence in one language other than English and the language of the student's major field of study for the MA (usually German). This must be done by passing an examination administered or approved by the department, or by taking a graduate-level course requiring the use of that language. The language certified for the MA degree may count as one of the two required for the PhD beyond English and the primary Germanic language.
NOTE: For more extensive procedural information on all program policies, please consult the program's Academic Guidelines and Teaching Guidelines, available from the Graduate Coordinator.
