The Department of German Studies offers students a wide variety of opportunities to explore the language, literature and culture of German-speaking countries. Courses are offered in English translation as well as in German, with subjects ranging from medieval to contemporary literature and include studies of film, visual culture, intellectual history, music, psychology and women's studies. The department also offers opportunities to explore Dutch and Swedish language.
The department is home to New German Critique, a leading journal that is devoted to publishing research on German culture in the 20th and 21st centuries, with particular focus on the history and theory of literature, theatre, media, intellectual history and the graphic arts. Students also have the opportunity as part of Cornell's Study Abroad program to attend the renowned Berlin Consortium for German Studies. The department works closely with the U.S.A.-Interns program to provide qualified students summer internships with German companies and agencies. All Cornell students are eligible to apply for a Certificate in German Language Study, which formally recognizes their study beyond the third semester (GERST 2000) of German language in the Department of German Studies.
Department websitePublications
“Queer Constellations, Cosmic Contacts: Trans-Forming the Narrative of Europe in Sasha Marianna Salzmann’s Meteoriten.” German Studies Review 48, no. 2 (forthcoming 2025).
“Gothic Cinema and Sexology in the Weimar Republic: Towards a Queer Gothic Aesthetic on Screen.” In Queer Gothic. An Edinburgh Companion, edited by Ardel Haefele-Thomas, 78–96. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023.
“The Anxiety of Tradition: Unrealized Weddings in Berdichevsky’s Yiddish Stories.” Naharaim -- Journal of German-Jewish Literature & Cultural History / Zeitschrift Für Deutsch-Jüdische Literatur Und Kulturgeschichte, vol. 16, no. 1, June 2022, pp. 101–27. (with James Redfield)
“Graduate Writing Support amid Crisis: Write Together at Home” (with Michelle Crow, Leigh York, Benedetta Carnaghi, and Tracy Hamler Carrick)” In: Alvarez, Sara P, et al., editors. Literacy and Learning in Times of Crisis: Emergent Teaching through Emergencies. Peter Lang, 2022. P. 278-298