German Studies Major and Minor

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German Studies Major and Minor

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German Studies Major and Minor

The German Studies Major and Minor at ˮ��

Majors will become proficient in the German language, gain knowledge of German-speaking literature, culture, and history, and engage in the critical analysis of those traditions.

Placement

Students who have studied German prior to entering ˮ�� but have not been awarded college credit for it will take an online placement test administered by ˮ��. They will be placed in German 250 or 260 if their preparation is exceptional; such students may request an additional oral examination to certify completion of the language requirement without additional courses. Students are placed in German 201 if their preparation is strong; in German 102 if less strong. In some cases, the department will recommend that a student who has studied German in high school begin in German 101. No student who has studied German in high school, however, should expect to take German 101 for credit without the express permission of the department.

Honors

To receive honors, a student must at the time of graduation have an overall GPA of 3.2 or better, have a 3.5 average in all courses counted toward the major, have fulfilled all the requirements for the major, and the department must judge the thesis (written for German 495) and its defense worthy of honors. In the case of an exceptional academic record, together with a thesis of the highest quality, the department may confer high honors.

Courses You Might Take

GER 232

Would the six million Jews have lived had the estimated 100 million books not been destroyed? What is it about books that suggests such a link to the human condition? Using the 1933 book burnings as its point of departure, this course explores the nature of literature in the context of the Third Reich.

GER 336

The course examines personal and collective memory in a variety of cultural contexts and the strategies that film and literature use to represent it. We will also analyze the roles that truth-telling, trauma and national narratives play in memory’s construction.

GER 102

For beginners, this course is an introduction and development of the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, along with presentation of the fundamental structures of German. Each course requires online work and participation in AT sessions.

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