PhD and MPhil research
Projects and Supervision
Research supervision for MPhil or PhD is available in all areas of special interest of members of staff. These include particularly:
- 19th and 20th century literature: Caroline Bland, Henk de Berg, Michael Perraudin
- Social and cultural history; cultural studies: Caroline Bland, Henk de Berg, Caroline Pearce, Michael Perraudin, Peter Thompson
- Literary, social and cultural theory: Henk de Berg, Caroline Pearce, Peter Thompson
- Gender studies and women's studies in German: Caroline Bland
- Modern German politics and society: Caroline Pearce, Peter Thompson
- Historical linguistics, dialectology: Gerald Newton
- Luxembourgish and Luxembourg studies: Gerald Newton
- Syntax, pragmatics, discourse analysis, spoken language: Roel Vismans, Regina Weinert
- Second language acquisition: Roel Vismans, Regina Weinert
- Modern Dutch Literature: Henriette Louwerse
- Postcolonial and Migration Literature: Henriette Louwerse
Entry Requirements
A good Honours degree in German/Germanic Studies or in a discipline which includes a major German/Germanic Studies component is our normal requirement.
We will consider applications from candidates with other qualifications who can provide evidence of strong motivation for research in Germanic Studies.
Admission for MPhil/PhD is normally on the basis of consideration of a research proposal of 400-500 words, a sample or samples of recent written work, and (where possible) an informal interview.
The interview also give you a chance to meet your potential supervisor and fellow students, view the Department´s facilities, and discuss matters such as funding, study resources and accommodation.
Current and recent postgraduate research topics include:
Modern German nationalism and national identity;
the Freie Deutsche Jugend;
the `Job´ motif in 20th century fiction;
F.X. Kroetz´s Volksstücke;
Rolf-Dieter Brinkmann's ethical poetry of the 1970s;
post-Wende film;
censorship and literature around 1830;
Gustav Freytag and the 1848 Revolution;
aspects of the labour process in post-unified Germany;
the process of radio play production and the oralisation of written texts;
the syntax-discourse interface in on-line football commentary;
production and perception of German vowels by native speakers of English;
British travel-writing about Vormärz Germany;
Ernst Bloch and the GDR;
second-person pronouns in spoken German;
Hesse and existentialism;
the linguistics of Luxembourgish.