Our doctoral students are encouraged to broadly pursue their interests and explore German Studies in innovative ways, as evidenced by the titles of our Ph.D. dissertations.
Our rigorous graduate program and the supportive environment we've cultivated ensures that our graduate students develop outstanding research, teaching, and writing skills. Our graduates are prepared to begin their careers as independent thinkers and successful professionals.
If you're interested in learning more about recent and past Germanic Languages & Literatures graduate students' dissertation and thesis research, please click the following links to view more information on OhioLink Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Center.
Placements, Dissertation and Thesis Titles
2017--present
- Kassi Burnett, PhD, Full Stack Web Developer at EverCommerce
- Elisha Brooker, MA, Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for the Chinese and Arabic Language Flagships within the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University.
- Bolin Ai, MA, Redakteur/Editor for Telc in Bad Homburg, Germany ( https://www.telc.net/ )
- Fabia Weisser, MA, doctoral student at Princeton.
- Haley Grubb, MA, continuing in our doctoral program here at Ohio State.
- Budimka Uskokovic, PhD, Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate German Language Instruction, The Ohio State University.
- Jennifer Marston William, PhD, Professor and Head of the School of Languages and Cultures at Purdue University.
- Wonneken Wanske, PhD, Pedagogical Counselor at at Cégep Heritage College, Canada.
- Weijia Li, PhD, Clinical Professor, Director of Global Higher Education MS Program, University of Wisconsin – Madison.
- Jaclyn Kurash, PhD, Teaching Associate Professor, Director of Grad Studies, and German Advisor, University of Pittsburgh.
- William A. Baker, PhD, German Transcriber at Productive Playhouse, an International Language Services and Production company based in Los Angeles.
- Budimka Uskokovic, PhD, Senior Lecturer, The Ohio State University.
- Carolin Mueller, PhD, Research Fellow, Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University Jerusalem.
- Kassi Burnett, PhD, Lecturer, The Ohio State University.
- William A. Baker, PhD, German Instructor, University of Kentucky.
- Carolin Mueller, PhD, wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Medienzentrum, TU Dresden.
- Sarah K. Traylor, PhD, Lecturer, The Ohio State University.
- Dennis Schäfer, MA, doctoral student at Princeton.
- Simon Lösch, PhD, Senior Service Delivery Lead onsite @ Google at Vaco
- Sara Rossini, PhD, Teacher at the Pädagogische Hochschule Bern, Switzerland.
- Kristen Hetrick, PhD, Fellowship Advisor, NC State University.
- Alex Holznienkemper, PhD, Lecturer, University of New Hampshire
- Bethany Richetti, PhD, Lecturer, The Ohio State University
2007-2016
- Wonneken Wanske, Assistant Professor, Rhodes College
- Erol Boran, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
- Sai Bhatawadekar, Associate Professor, University of Hawaii
- Charles Vannette, Assistant Professor, University of New Hampshire
- Jennifer William, Professor, Purdue University
- Jaclyn Kurash, Lecturer, University of Pittsburgh
- Wonneken Wanske, Visiting Assistant Professor, Rhodes College
- Sylvia Fischer, Assistant Professor, University of West Florida
- Alex Holznienkemper, Lecturer, Baylor University
- Weijia Li, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin – Madison
- Berit Jany, Instructor and Coordinator of the German language program, University of Colorado
- Kristy Boney, Associate Professor, University of Central Missouri
- Jennifer Magro Algarotti, Assistant Professor, George Mason University
- Kristen Hetrick, Assistant Professor, Doane College
- Thomas Stefaniuk, Assistant Professor, Florida Gulf Coast University
- Jesse Wood, Visiting Assistant Professor, BYU-Idaho
- Kevin Richards, Lecturer, The Ohio State University
- Sara Luly, Assistant Professor, Kansas State University
- Charles Vannette, Assistant Professor, Ferris State University
- Nikhil Sathe, Associate Professor, Ohio University
- Stephanie Libbon, Associate Professor, Kent State University
- Weijia Li, Assistant Professor, Western Illinois University
- Cynthia Chalupa, Associate Professor, West Virginia University
- Sai Bhatawadekar, Assistant Professor, University of Hawaii
- Andrea Payk-Heitmann, Lecturer, Freie Universität zu Berlin
Graduates who pursue a career outside of the academy currently work for the following organizations:
- Arbeitsgemeinschaft Literarischer Gesellschaften und Gedenkstätten
- Goethe-Institut Boston
- Klett World Languages
- PTI Global
- Mountbatten Institute
- Chemical Abstracts Services
- Ann-Sophie Roehm (PhD 2023), On the “right” path? – Analyzing recent breaking news coverage of right-extremist attacks in German media
- Budimka Uskokovich (PhD 2022), Intercultural Communicative Competence in German: A Conversation Analytic Approach
- Kassi Burnett (PhD 2021), Differently Abled Natures: Being Other than Human in Contemporary German Literature
- William Baker (PhD 2021), Melancholy and the Photo-Historical Approach in the Films of Wim Wenders
- Carolin Mueller (PhD 2020), From Musical Activism to Musical Citizenship: Dresden’s Banda Internationale
- Carly Martin (PhD 2020), Schöne Prose: Language Critique and Biography in the Early Herder
- Sarah K. Traylor (PhD 2019), Sacred Journeys in a Secular Age: Pilgrimage in Contemporary German Literature
- Simon Losch (PhD 2017), An Obsolete Hegemon? America’s Function in the Imagination of a (Re-)unified German Nation
- Bethany A. Richetti (PhD 2017), Learning to Re-present: Realism & Education in Literature and Visual Arts, 1800-1880
- Marcus Breyer (PhD 2017), Meerstimmigkeiten: Metapher und Modernekritik bei Eduard von Keyserling
- Jaclyn Kurash (PhD 2015), Mechanical Women and Sexy Machines: Typewriting in Mass-Media Culture of the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933
- Sara Rossini (PhD 2015), “Wie kommts, daß es mit den Philanthropinen so gar nicht fort will?”: Die Kritik an den Erziehungsmethoden der Philanthropen in fiktionalen Texten der Aufklärung
- Wonneken Wanske (PhD 2015), Giving Birth and/to the New Science of Obstetrics: Fin-De-Siècle German Women Writers’ Perceptions of the Birthing Experience
- Amber Suggitt (PhD 2015), Between Becoming and Being: Representations of the Individual in Friederike Helene Unger’s Novels
- Sylvia Fischer (PhD 2014), Dass Hämmer und Herzen synchron erschallen. Erkundungen zu Heimat in Literatur und Film der DDR der 50er und 60er Jahre
- Alex Holznienkemper (PhD 2014), Philosophie und Literatur im post-säkularen Zeitalter – religiöse Gewalt im zeitgenössischen Roman
- Berit Jany (PhD 2013), Heresy or Ideal Society? A Study of Early Anabaptism as Minority Religion in German Fiction
- Jennifer Magro Algarotti (PhD 2012), The Austrian Imaginary of Wilderness: Landscape, History and Identity in Contemporary Austrian Literature
- Jesse Wood (PhD 2012), “Aber das Geistige, das sehen Sie, das ist nichts.” Collisions with Hegel in Bertolt Brecht’s Early Materialism
- Kevin Richards (PhD 2012), Soldiering On: Images of the German Soldier 1985-2008
- Thomas Stefaniuk (PhD 2012), Diaspora Destiny: Joseph Jessing and Competing Narratives of Nation, 1860-1899
- Kristen Hetrick (PhD 2012), Writing Illness: Tuberculosis and Cancer in German and North American Literature
- Charles Vannette (PhD 2011), ‘Wir pröbeln and schneidern mit Dingen, die in der Brust anderer Menschen gesund und geheimnissvoll und unangetastet ruhen…’: Narrative Observation and Hyperreflexivity in the Works of Robert Walser
- Sara Luly (PhD 2011), Magnetized Men: Constructing Masculinity through Somnambulism in the Works of German Romanticism
- Weijia Li (PhD 2009), Anna Seghers’ China – Begegnung in ihrem Leben und ihren Werken
- Sai Bhatawadekar (PhD 2007), Symptoms of Withdrawal: The Threefold Structure of Hegel's and Schopenhauer's Interpretation of Hindu Religion and Philosophy
- Andrea Payk-Heitmann (PhD 2007), Fortschreiben, Vermeiden, Erneuern: Der Amerikadiskurs Deutscher Schriftsteller nach dem 11. September 2001
- Kristy Boney (PhD 2006), Mapping Topographies in the Anglo and German Narratives of Joseph Conrad, Anna Seghers, James Joyce, and Uwe Johnson
- Patricia Sanda (PhD 2006), Christoph Ransmayrs Romane "Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis", "Die Letze Welt" und "Morbus Kitahara": Eine Narratologische, Historische und Rezeptionsästhetische Untersuchung
- David Connolly (PhD 2005), Problems of Textual Transmission in Early German Books on Mining: "Der Ursprung gemeynnes Berckrecht" and the Norwegian "Bergkordnung"
- Michaela Peroutkova (PhD 2005), Literarische und mündliche Erzählungen über die Vertreibung. Ein deutsch-tschechischer Vergleich
- Kathleen Hallihan (PhD 2005), Envisioning an Ideal State: The Literary Politics of Bettina von Arnim from 1830 to 1852
- Erol Boran (PhD 2004), Eine Geschichte des Türkisch-Deutschen Theaters und Kabaretts: Fremd- und Eigeninszenierung des "Türken" im Wandel der Zeiten
- Nikhil Sathe (PhD 2003), Authenticity and the critique of the tourism industry in postwar Austrian literature
- Jennifer William (PhD 2002), Zeiträume: Time, Space, and Metaphor in German-Language Novels of the Twentieth Century
- Yogini Joglekar (PhD 2002), Who Cares Whodunit? Anti-Detection in West German Cinema
- Alicia Carter (PhD 2002), Fremde Pflanzen: The Gendered Gardens of Adalbert Stifter and Theodor Fontane
- Christine Möller-Sahling (PhD 2001), Wie schön und unendlich schöner malt die Ferne Dich: Der Liebesdiskurs im Briefwechsel um 1800
- Cynthia Chalupa (PhD 2001), Through the Looking Glass: Overcoming Language in the Works of Georg Trakl, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Ilse Aichinger
- Stephanie Libbon (PhD 2000), Frank Wedekind’s Fantasy World: A Theater of Sexuality
Fabia Weisser (MA 2023), "Kollektenreisen – Selbstdarstellung in Eberhard Ludwig Grubers Kollektentagebuch"
Haley Grubb (MA 2023), "L1 Question Design in German Conversations-for-Learning: a conversation analytic approach"
Elisha Brooker (MA 2023), "Mixed Identities in the Far West: Questions of Coexistence in DEFA’s Indianerfilme"
Bolin Ai (MA 2023), "How Do Students Approach Language Learning Tasks: A Conversation Analytic Study of Beginning German Learners' Task-based Oral Interactions in the Classroom"
Caleb B. Davis (MA 2020), "Man stellt Denkmaler nicht auf den flachen Asphalt" - Nationalism and Narrative in Commemorative "Siegfried" Monuments in Weimar- and Nazi Germany
Dennis Schaefer (MA 2018), Modernity’s Pact with the Devil: Goethe’s Faust, Keller’s Romeo and Julia auf dem Dorfe, and Storm’s Der Schimmelreiter as Tales of Forgetting
Jarrod Shepherd (MA 2006), Translation of Culture in Emine Sevgi Özdamar's 'Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei'
Jennifer L. Magro-Algarotti (MA 2006), Missionary Writing in Cameroon, 1914-1948: Anna Rein-Wuhrmann and the Basel Mission
Niels Bohrmann (MA 2006), Canetti vs. Nietzsche: Zwei anthropologische Systeme im Vergleich
Sanjot A. Walawalkar (MA 2005), Retelling Histories: Magical Realism in Günter Grass’s Die Blechtrommel and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children
Kirsten Harder (MA 2005), Dichten, Deuten, Denken. Die Stefan-George-Rezeption von Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer und Theodor W. Adorno
Susanne E. Erhardt (MA 2003) Teaching the Tales, Literature and Second Language Teaching: An Integrated Approach Employing Fairy Tales
Norman D. Hirschy (MA 2003) Denknotwendigkeiten: History, Homosociality and the Contesting of Masculinity in Der Untertan and Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless
Kent Broestl (MA 2002) Faith, The Sacraments and Providence in Elisabeth Langgässer’s Das Unauslöschliche Siegel
Samuel Jordan (MA 2002) The Semiotics of Soviet Yiddish: A Preliminary Study of a Visual System
Stephan F. Mayr (MA 2001) Martin Walsers Angst vor den Meinungssoldaten: Der lange Weg zur Friedenspreisrede
Magdalena Marie Stadtmann (MA 2001) Orientimaginationen in Else Lasker-Schülers ‘die Nächte Tino von Bagdads’ und ‘der Prinz von Theben’
Lijun Feng (MA 2001) Literatur als Therapie? eine historische und psychoanalytische Studie zu Goethes Briefroman ‘die leiden des jungen werther’ und Handkes Erzählung ‘wunschloses unglück’
Moises Mermelstein (MA 2000) Shloyme Braynski: His Colombian Work in Context
Draga Patricia Sanda (MA 2000) Wittgensteins Solipsismus und Sprachspiele. Direkte und indirekte Rezeption in der Literatur: Peter Handke ‘Kaspar’ und Günter Eich ‘Man bittet zu läuten’
Colleen H. McCallum (MA 2000) Black Ashkenaz: depictions of African-Americans in selected Yiddish Poetry
Yevgeniya Iosilevich (MA 1999) The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind and The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol : the little man: from tragedy to alienation
Joseph W. Moser (MA 1999) The Portrayal of the Historic Lie of Austria being the First Victim of Hitler's Aggression in Josef Haslinger's "Politik der Gefühle" and Ruth Beckermann's "Unzugehörig Österreicher und Juden nach 1945"
Rachel J. Lindsay (MA 1999) Emancipatory Trends in Early GDR Literature by Women