Courses – Autumn 2025

German 2350 • Introduction to German Studies

tba| 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies

This course provides a broad introduction to German history and culture and to the field of German Studies. Taught in English, it is an ideal course for students considering a major or minor in German, or for those with a general interest in German-language history and culture.

The course will have four components

• lectures on history (social, cultural, political, and linguistic)
• lectures on contemporary German-language society and culture
• discussion about works of literature, film, philosophy, art, music, etc.
• introductions to methods for studying language and culture

In the end, students will have a broad overview of German-language history and culture and a catalog of questions that will include tools for analyzing everything from medieval sagas to television shows, political speeches to the words they use.
Taught in English.
Required books (in recommended English editions):
Das Niebelungenlied: The Lay of the Niebelungs. Oxford Classics, ISBN 978-0199238545
The Sorrows of Young Werther. Oxford Classics, ISBN: 978-0199583027
These books are also available as open-access editions, or contact instructor for information about German or German-English editions.
Recommended book:
Mary Fulbrook, A Concise History of Germany, ISBN: 978-0521540711

German 3250 • Citizenship in the Age of Technology: Exploring Social Justice through Science Fiction in Germany 

Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World

Investigating the promises & pitfalls that technologies once confined to the pages of science fiction pose to our relationships, our communities, and our world, with a specific focus on the challenges they will bring to our concept of citizenship. Recent German science fiction will illuminate the debate on the future of democracy as it unfolds in Germany, the USA & in a broader global context.

Taught in English. DL course.

German 3252.02 • The Holocaust in Literature and Film

Richards | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

GE Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse & Just World 

Why, faced with a historical catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, would we devote a class to film and literature about it, rather than to “the facts”?

HOW YOU SAY THINGS MATTERS

Come find out why.

Taught in English. DL course.

Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 3252.01 or Yiddish 3399.

Yiddish 2241 • Yiddish Culture

Hamel | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies

Taught in English.

An introduction to Yiddish culture and society, this course will equip students with the methodological tools to study culture and media more broadly.

No knowledge of German or Yiddish required.

Cross-listed in Jewish Studies.

GE Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies

Yiddish 3399 • The Holocaust in Yiddish Writing and Film

Hamel | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
4 credit course; GE Theme – Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World; Integrative Practice: Research and Creative Inquiry 

Meets in-person 3x/week, 220 minutes total (two 80-minute sessions and one 60-minute session per week)

  About six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II in a series of events that came to be known as the Holocaust or, in Yiddish, as the “khurbn” (“destruction”). Yiddish was the first language of millions of the victims, but the contributions of speakers of this language to the documentation and representation of the Holocaust have often been overlooked or effaced. 
  In this course, while we will learn about the systematic destruction of Yiddish culture and society, we will also consider how Yiddish-language writers, artists, intellectuals, and filmmakers documented and resisted that destruction. In class discussions and assignments, we will analyze texts, films, and other media produced during and after the Holocaust and consider how these materials, written in or incorporating a language that was itself victimized, open up different perspectives on a seemingly well-known history. We will also consider how these materials participate in ongoing debates about citizenship and minority rights, justice and restitution, the representation of violence, and cultural memory. In addition to providing an introduction to the academic study of the Holocaust and Yiddish culture, this course will familiarize students with cutting-edge research methods and techniques in the humanities and interpretive social sciences (e.g., close reading, archival research, oral history, etc.). 

All readings and discussion in English. No knowledge of Yiddish is required. 

German 1101.01 • German I

4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

  GEN World Languages
  GEL Foreign Language course  
 Introduction to language and culture of the German-speaking world, with emphasis placed on the acquisition of basic communication skills in cultural context. CEFR Level A1. 
Text: Impuls Deutsch 1

German 1102.01 • German II

4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

  GEN World Languages
  GEL Foreign Language course

Text: Impuls Deutsch 1
Prereq: 1101.01, 1101.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1101.51

Continued development of German-language skills and cultural knowledge for effective communication. Emphasis on more advanced language structures, sustained interactions, reading and writing. CEFR Levels A1/A2

German 1103.01 • German III

4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

  GEN World Languages
  GEL Foreign Language course
Development of skills for independent use of German. Discussions, presentations, writing, & listening/viewing activities that address topics of contemporary German-speaking world. CEFR Level A2. 
Text: Impuls Deutsch 2
Prereq: 1102.01, 1102.02 or 4 sem cr hrs of 1102.51 

German 1101.02 • 1102.02 • 1103.02

Distance Learning option

  GEN World Languages
  GEL Foreign Language course
4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

German 2101 • Texts and Contexts I: Contemporary German Language, Culture and Society

   | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
   | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

Development of communication skills and knowledge about recent social, cultural, and political developments in German speaking countries through texts, media and film; CEFR level A2/B1. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 1103.01, 1103.02, or 4 sem cr hrs of 1103.51, or equiv, or permission of instructor. No audit. 

German 2102 • Texts and Contexts II: 20th-Century German Language, History and Culture

   | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
   | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

Continued development of communication skills; gain an understanding of major social and cultural developments in 20th century German history through texts, media, film. CEFR level B1/B2. Closed to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2101 or equiv, or permission of instructor. FL Admis Cond course.

German 3101 • Texts and Contexts III: Historical Perspectives

   | 3 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025

Development of intermediate/advanced communication skills; broadening of cultural and historical knowledge through interaction with literary and non-literary materials informed by historical perspective; CEFR level B2. Closed to to native speakers of this language.
Prereq: 2102 or equiv, or permission of instructor.

note: 

Yiddish 1101: “Elementary Yiddish Language” (offered every fall) – GE World Languages 

Yiddish 1102, Yiddish 1103, and more advanced language courses will be offered on a regular basis either on campus or via CourseShare. 

Yiddish 1101 • Yiddish 1

Hamel | 4 credit units | Autumn Semester 2025
  GEN World Languages

Yiddish 1101 is an introduction to the Yiddish language and Ashkenazic culture. The course is designed to help you learn to communicate in culturally appropriate ways in Yiddish. We aim to help you develop balanced skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. At the end of the semester you should be able to listen to simple conversations or stories and understand them, read and understand short texts, engage in brief conversations on everyday topics, and write short essays on familiar topics using the structures and vocabulary you have learned. In addition, you will learn about Ashkenazic cultural topics.

erman 6601 • Teaching Practicum

Uskokovic | 1 credit unit  | ARR - Autumn Semester 2025

This course is for GTAs who are teaching a 1000-level German language class. The course provides graduate students with instruction and practice in designing and implementing instructional materials for their undergraduate classes. It offers best practices in creating tests, developing speaking portfolios, designing culture components, and becoming reflective practitioners.
Prereq: Grad standing, and permission of instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 10 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U.

German 7600 • Teaching World Languages at the College Level

Taleghani-Nikazm | 3 credit units | Wednesdays 4:00-6:40pm   | Autumn Semester 2024

This course examines theory and research that underlie contemporary approaches to communicative language teaching and includes work with the development of materials and activities for the classroom. We will consider and discuss a range of aspects of second language acquisition (SLA) theory and research that have implications for the L2 classroom. It will provide the graduate student with a theoretical and practical foundation.

cross-listed with FRIT 7600

German 8200 • Seminar in Literature and Literary Culture

tba| 3 credit units | tba | Autumn Semester 2025

Course description forthcoming!

Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.

German 8300 • Seminar in Intellectual History and Cultural Studies 

tba | 3 credit units | tba | Autumn Semester 2025

Course description forthcoming!

Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.

German 8500 • Doctoral Colloquium

Byram | 1 credit unit | ARR - Autumn Semester 2025

Regular student-driven discussions of ongoing dissertations, current topics in the professional field, and new research approaches to Germanic Studies.
Prereq: Successful completion of Ph.D. candidacy exams or permission from Director of Graduate Studies and instructor. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs. This course is graded S/U. Admis Cond course.

German 8600 • Seminar in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

tba | 3 credit units | tba | Autumn Semester 2025

Course description forthcoming!

Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor.