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Germanic Studies

Field Description

*Please note that students are not admitted into a terminal-M.A. program in Germanic Studies, but may earn the M.A. on the way to earning the Ph.D. For complete information, please contact the field.

The concentration in German area studies combines relevant courses in history, international relations, and comparative economics with courses in German literature, culture, and language.

The concentration in German intellectual history draws on faculty members of other fields such as philosophy, history, government, anthropology, psychology, music, etc. Students may concentrate on a theme or in a historical period from the Middle Ages to the present. The focus of the major is generally on the history of ideas as reflected in German written documents. Students may also concentrate in German cinema studies.

The concentration in Germanic linguistics aims to ensure familiarity with the basic tools of research in linguistics and philology and to provide the student with a thorough knowledge of selected areas of specialization. Students may focus on one or more of the following: the structure of modern German; the history of German; comparative Germanic linguistics; and the older Germanic languages.

The concentration in Germanic literature is uniquely flexible: in general, requirements are defined in terms of competence, not in terms of credits or specific courses. Students are expected to acquire a general knowledge of German literature and to become familiar with the tools and methods necessary for research and analysis. In addition, students are expected to acquire a more detailed knowledge of one of the following areas: medieval; Renaissance, Reformation, Baroque; enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, Schiller, Goethe; romanticism, Biedermeier, Restoration through Vormärz; realism, naturalism; or twentieth century.

The university's collection of Old Norse materials (the Fiske Icelandic Collection) is probably the best of its kind outside Scandinavia.

Contact Information

Website: https://german.cornell.edu/graduate
Email: germanic_studies@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-4047

183 Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Data and Statistics

Field Manual

Subject and Degrees

Germanic Studies

Concentrations by Subject

Germanic Studies

  • German area studies
  • German intellectual history
  • Germanic linguistics
  • Germanic literature
  • Old Norse (minor)

Faculty

Erik Christopher Born

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: medieval studies, media studies

Jonathan Boyarin

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; Germanic linguistics
  • Research Interests: East European Jewish culture and history; Yiddish language; diaspora; textuality in culture.

Paul Fleming

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: 18th - 20th century German literature with an emphasis on classicism, romanticism, and realism; aesthetic theory

Cristina Florea

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history
  • Research Interests: Central and Eastern Europe, Soviet Union/Eurasia, Habsburg Monarchy and successor states, empires/imperial history, transnational, global and comparative history, cultural and intellectual history

Peter Gilgen

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: German intellectual history; Germanic literature

Vanessa M. Gubbins

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: 19th and 20th century literature, poetry/poetics and philosophy; critical theory (Frankfurt School); Marxism; feminism; decolonial theory.

Sabine Haenni

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history
  • Research Interests: Transnational, European, American cinemas, film history, silent film, migration, urbanism/geography/architecture, cinema, media and the public sphere, film festivals

Mari F. Jarris

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: 19th- and 20th-Century German Theory and Literature, Feminist and Queer Theory, Marxism

Peter Joachim Katzenstein

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German intellectual history
  • Research Interests: political, economic, cultural affairs of Germany and Europe

Michelle A. Kosch

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German intellectual history
  • Research Interests: German philosophy; 19th- and 20th-Century German and Danish philosophy

Patchen Markell

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history
  • Research Interests: Modern German thought and culture in transnational perspective; political theory, aesthetics, and poetics; Arendt; Marx, Marxism and critical theory.

Patrizia C. McBride

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: German literature; aesthetic theory; visual studies

Annette Richards

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history
  • Research Interests: eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music criticism and aesthetic theory and practice; C.P.E. Bach; intersections between music and visual culture

Anette Schwarz

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: romanticism; realism; twentieth century; literary theory; psychoanalysis; philosophy of language

Elke Siegel

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German area studies; German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: German literature from 1900 to present; literary theory; psychoanalysis

Enzo Traverso

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German intellectual history
  • Research Interests: twentieth century, critical theory, Marxism, memory studies

Geoffrey Carter W Waite

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Germanic Studies: German intellectual history; Germanic literature
  • Research Interests: European philosophy; visual studies; Marxism; Spinoza; Nietzsche; Heidegger; Althusser; Lacan; Karatani