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German
National ratings
Research Assessment Exercise 2008: ranked in the top 30 nationally, 20% of our research rated "world-leading" or "internationally excellent" with a further 50% judged to be "internationally recognised".
Taught Pre-Master's programmes
Research programmes
German at Kent offers an ideal environment for the postgraduate study of literature within a broadly European context. The research interests of our staff cover the entire modern period both within German-speaking countries and across Europe, and include poetry, the European avant-garde, women's writing, modernism and postmodernism, literary theory and linguistics. In addition to the research expertise of our staff, all postgraduates in German Literature benefit from the activities co-ordinated by the Centre for Modern European Literature, including lectures by distinguished guest speakers, research seminars, conferences and a reading group. The MA programme enjoys a broader perspective than many purely German MA programmes, since the University of Kent is one of the few English universities to have a dedicated department of Comparative Literature.
German is part of the School of European Culture and Languages (SECL), which embraces eight other disciplines: Classical & Archaeological Studies; Comparative Literature; English Language and Linguistics; French; Hispanic Studies; Italian; Philosophy; and Religious Studies. Students enrolled on a postgraduate programme in German can draw on the excellent resources of a diverse team of lecturers with expertise in many key areas of European culture. The Centre for Modern European Literature brings together various subjects within the School and ensures a vigorous and lively research culture.
Language speaking
Every year, a considerable number of native speakers of foreign languages follow our courses and several European exchange students stay on to do graduate work. There are also foreign-language lectors who are either combining teaching with a Kent higher degree or completing dissertations for their home universities. We can assist with language-training needs of overseas postgraduates, particularly where English is concerned, and are also involved in the Erasmus and Tempus networks.
Training
All postgraduate students in the School of European Culture and Languages have the opportunity to undertake a Transferable Skills Training Programme provided by the Graduate School. There are training workshops for postgraduate students with teaching responsibilities, which bring together students from all its subject areas. Research students gain further academic experience by giving research talks in the Centre for Modern European Literature series, and attending national and international conferences.
Research
The German section has particular strengths in modern literature (our research interests cover the period from 1750 to the present) and linguistics.
Research is consciously conceived as interdisciplinary, organised through the MA in Modern German and Comparative Literature and through close links with the Centre for Modern European Literature and the Centre for Language and Linguistic Studies (co-directed by Dr Ben Hutchinson and Dr John Partridge respectively).
Regular research seminars help to bring postgraduates together as a community, as well as to introduce them to visiting speakers from outside the University.
Strong publishing Culture
Recent books published by the German Department include: Faust: Icon of Modern Culture (Osman Durrani); Rilke's Poetics of Becoming (Ben Hutchinson); W G Sebald Die dialektische Imagination (Ben Hutchinson); German Novelists of the Weimar Republic: Intersections of Literature and Politics (ed Karl Leydecker); After Intimacy: The Culture of Divorce in the West since 1789 (ed Karl Leydecker); Anglophone Jewish Literature (ed Axel Stähler); Sprachzerlegung in historischer Avantgardelyrik und konkreter Poesie (Anna Katharina Schaffner). Staff also publish regularly in leading journals such as Modern Language Review, German Life & Letters, Etudes Germaniques and Forum for Modern Language Studies.
Conferences
We encourage all of our postgraduate students to get involved in conferences, whether by attending, contributing or organising. In 2007, the National Postgraduate Colloquium in German Studies was held in Canterbury, and postgraduate students in German are also involved in the conferences organised by Skepsi. Recent conferences organised by staff include Jean Améry – Literatur zwischen Erinnerung, Politik und Selbstsuche (January 2009, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach), The Plastic Expression, the Fruitful Sphere: European Poets and Sculptors in the 20th Century (November 2009, Henry Moore Institute Leeds), Archive: The XIIth British Comparative Literature Association Conference (July 2010, Kent), and Cultures at War: Austria-Hungary 1914-1918 (Oxford, April 2011).
Graduate Diploma
Kent's series of Graduate Diplomas provides a Pre-Master's route for international students – our Graduate Diplomas focus on developing your academic subject knowledge for postgraduate study, while improving your academic skills and English Language proficiency. On successful completion of the Diploma and through meeting the University's rules of progression, you are guaranteed entry onto a number of programmes within German. please email us: premasters@kent.ac.uk
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