Postgraduate study offers the opportunity to further develop applied skills or to pursue a specific academic interest to a deeper level. This might be for personal satisfaction or for reasons of career development. In either case the Department of German offers a wide range of options.

Two types of programme are available: the Masters by Research (MRes) and Ph.D.

The Masters by Research (MRes)

This MA is designed to allow students to pursue their own programme of research in any area of German Studies in collaboration with a suitably qualified supervisor.

This is a special scheme, designed for candidates who already have the necessary qualifications to carry out research. They must also have identified and, to some extent, have already prepared a subject which meets the criteria of being original and significant but which is specific and sufficiently confined in extent to be capable of being researched and written up, in the form of a Thesis of between 20,000-30,000 words, within one year. Applicants must submit a research proposal with their application and, if accepted, will be registered directly for the M.A. by Research.

First Contact for enquiries regarding postgraduate work in the School of Modern Languages:

Sue Hamelman (S.L.Hamelman@leeds.ac.uk)

The Ph.D.

The Ph.D. requires three years full-time study, carrying out a research project of originality, significance and scope and the submission within a maximum of four years from the date of registration of a thesis of between 80,000-100,000 words.

Admission to the Ph.D. scheme requires the highest entrance qualifications, normally including a good first degree or equivalent professional qualification, a degree at postgraduate level or relevant professional experience and an approved research proposal.

Students are normally admitted first only as 'Provisional Ph.D.' students. They have one year to prove their abilities in the research training courses and by the preparation of a detailed research programme proposal with the help of their supervisor. If succesful they are then formally registered as candidates of the Ph.D. The preparatory period counts as part of the requirement of three years full-time study as well as the four year maximum period for the presentation of the Thesis.

First Contact for enquiries regarding postgraduate work in the School of Modern Languages:

Sue Hamelman (S.L.Hamelman@leeds.ac.uk)

Current Student Profiles

Our MA, MRes and Ph.D candidates are always integral to the departmental research culture and are often also integrated into our undergraduate teaching programme.

We are usually able to offer MA, MRes and Ph.D candidates office space in the department and also access to secretarial support.

Student Profile: Lucy Macnab, MRes

Email: lucy@artcircus.co.uk

I decided to apply for the MA by research about 6 months after finishing my degree in English and German. I was working as Women’s Officer at the Students’ Union, and applying for jobs, but realised that I felt like I hadn’t quite finished what I’d started at university, and wanted to try some more in depth research. Having written a long essay about Judith Hermann, a contemporary German writer, I became more and more interested in the other women writers around at the moment, and in the questions arising from my reading, about identity, pop literature and feminism in the 21^st century. So I applied for funding, which involved hard work, but managed to get a grant to cover fees and maintenance from the AHRB.

My final project is focused on representations of the body in writing by Karen Duve, Malin Schwerdtfeger and Julia Franck. I have enjoyed the reading and writing, but have also gained a lot from my other experiences of studying at Leeds. I made two research trips to the national literature archive in Marbach, with the help of a departmental travel grant and AHRB support, and have presented papers at a symposium on contemporary women’s writing and the National Postgraduate Colloquium. I was also involved in helping out with an international conference hosted by the German department at Leeds and coordinated a first year Grammar and IT module for modern languages students. Doing an MA is something I would highly recommend, it is a great opportunity for personal development, and a chance to really learn about a subject in detail. It has given me transferable skills in teaching, research methods and giving presentations, as well as advancing my own ability to analyse and write about literature.

Student Profile: Chris Homewood, Ph.D

Email: chris8919@yahoo.co.uk

Having completed my BA in English and German at the University of Bangor I felt that I wanted to step up to the challenge of research and so applied to do an MA at the University of Nottingham. For my MA dissertation I started researching the history of the RAF, better known as the Baader-Meinhof group/gang, and wrote about the attempts of the directors of the New German Cinema to represent urban terrorism in Germany on celluloid. Having completed the project I felt there was far more ground to be covered on the topic, especially in light of the resurgence of interest in terrorist organisations in the wake the events of 9/11in New York and a slew of new films by German directors who were once again returning to the subject of Germany’s terrorist past.

For the PhD I am examining the shifting filmic representation of the terrorist discourse in Germany over the course of the last 30 years. The critical study of film is a growing field, but one that exhibits gaps; while there is clearly a renewed interest in the representation of urban terrorism among German film-makers, it remains under-explored by scholars. With this project I aim to add new dimensions to this clearly significant phenomenon by comprehensively charting the political and social trajectories of one of the most important historical epochs in German history whilst simultaneously considering the aesthetic challenges inherent in adequately conceptualising the relationship between film and history.

In the course of my first year at Leeds I gave a conference paper at the ECRF 4 in Newcastle and made a research trip to Berlin, the costs for which were funded by the department. The German department at Leeds is extremely friendly and always willing to both listen to and meet the needs of its postgraduates. This all makes for a comfortable and relaxed working environment in which to really shine as a research student. Next to the thesis, the second most important aspect of life as a PhD student is the preparation for a probable career in academia, something the department excels at; as a member of staff you are never made to feel marginalized, but rather a fully integrated member of the department enjoying the responsibilities that are necessary in order to build a comprehensive CV. Still, full-time members of staff are always ready to lend their support and considerable experience so that postgraduate tutors never feel left out in the cold. In my experience the most important requirement for a research student is support, and this is something that any new additions to our postgraduate community will never be short of.

Research Culture in the Department of German

All members of the German Department are active in a wide range of research fields covering the literature, culture and society of the German-speaking countries. To see our latest work, please go to our Publications Showcase.

New appointments in recent years have strengthened our activities in the post-1945 period, an example of which is a focus on emerging writers in the post-unification ‘Berlin Republic’, politics and society in the new Germany, German-Jewish relations, film, the former GDR.

The 2001 national assessment of research rated our work as equating to attainable levels of national and international excellence.

As part of our focus on contemporary German politics, culture and society, we have an active programme of visiting German authors and a regular research seminar.

Conferences

The Department of German at Leeds has established a strong reputation as a center for research a variety of areas of German studies. This is evidenced by our hosting of a number of conferences over the last decade:

Uwe Timm in Perspective

Germany In The Age Of Normalisation

Interactions

Stifter And Modernism

Hermann Hesse Today

Workshop On Emerging Writers

Peacemakers & Warmongers

Women In German Studies

Vienna Meets Berlin: Women In Vienna And Berlin Between The Wars

The Novel In Anglo-German Context

International Collaboration

The Department of German is currently involved in a number of collaborative research projects, all of which have been facilitated by external grants and involve international teams of scholars.

Normalisation & Beyond

This is the first of two schemes funded by the British Academy with a view to promoting collaborative work between researchers working in the area of modern German history, politics and culture in institutions in the UK, the USA and Germany. The specific focus of the project is the concept of "normalisation"in Germany post-1989, and particularly since the mid-1990s.

Screening Identities

Our second "networks" project, "Screening Identities", investigates the reconfiguration of political identity as represented in contemporary European cinema.

‘Kölner Ausgabe’

Work on this project commenced in 1997 and will continue until 2010. The first of the 27 volumes of scholarly edition of the writer Heinrich Böll's complete works were launched at a press conference by the Federal Chancellor in October 2002 and widely reported in the German media. It is funded by a range of institutions including the Federal Office of Culture and the State of North-Rhine Westphalia.

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder

at the project's launch in Cologne

Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) was one of Germany's leading intellectual figures in the postwar period. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.

Supervision Expertise

Below is a summary of just some of the ‘supervision expertise’ in the department. For more details, see individual staff profiles further down this webpage.

· Literature, film, politics and history of the former GDR

(Paul Cooke and Ingrid Sharp)

· Literature, film, politics and history of the pre-1990 West Germany

(Frank Finlay, Ingo Cornils and Stuart Taberner)

· Literature, film, politics and history of the ‘Berlin Republic’

(Frank Finlay, Paul Cooke, Ingo Cornils, Stuart Taberner)

The History and Literature of the Student Movement

(Ingo Cornils)

· Women’s history and Writing in Germany

(Ingrid Sharp)

· Heinrich Böll and other German Writers of the 1940s-1980s

(Frank Finlay)

· Martin Walser, Günter Grass and West German Writers

(Stuart Taberner)

· East German Writers

(Paul Cooke)

· Utopian Thought and Fiction

(Ingo Cornils)

· Fantastical Thought and Fiction

(Ingo Cornils)

· Hesse

(Ingo Cornils)

· Swiss Writers

(Syd Donald)

· Kleist, Wagner, Nietzsche

(Fred Bridgham)

First Contact for enquiries regarding postgraduate work in the School of Modern Languages:

Sue Hamelman (S.L.Hamelman@leeds.ac.uk)

Staff in the German Department

Fred Bridgham

BA German (Queen's University Belfast)

Ph.D (Cambridge)

email: f.g.t.bridgham@leeds.ac.uk

FULL STAFF WEBPAGE: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/fgtb.htm

Background

Universität Münster (1965-68): Lektor for English

University of Leeds (1971 - ) Senior Lecturer in German

Research Supervision

Fred Bridgham has supervised research at Leeds for over thirty years, in particular MA dissertations on all aspects of Anglo-German cultural relations.

His doctoral students have worked on:

- Karl Kraus and journalism

- Richard Wagner's Ring and William Morris's Sigurd the Volsung

- A.R. Orage and the New Age periodical

- Nietzsche and the 'will to power'

Key Publications

Rainer Maria Rilke, Urbild and Verzicht (Stuttgart: Heinz Verlag, 1976)
Germany from Unification to Reunification (Bangor: Headstart History, 1992)
'Kleist’s Familie Schroffenstein and “Monk” Lewis’s Mistrust: Give and Take', in Susanne Stark, The Novel in Anglo-German Context (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000)
'Emancipating Amazons: Schiller's Jungfrau, Kleist's Penthesilea, Wagner's Brünnhilde', in Forum for Modern Language Studies (Jan. 2000)

Complete Publications List at: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/fgtb.htm

Paul Cooke

BA (Birmingham); MA (Nottingham)
Ph.D (Birmingham)

e-mail: p.cooke@leeds.ac.uk

FULL STAFF WEBPAGE: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/pc.htm

Research Supervision

Paul Cooke is interested in supervising suitably-qualified candidates in any area of post-1945 German culture and society. His particular expertise is in the field of east German studies, and he has recently published a book on the cultural legacy of the GDR in contemporary society. Paul Cooke has also worked on aspects of the history of German cinema and is keen to supervise candidates on any area of German film studies, from Weimar to the present.

Key Publications

Speaking the Taboo: a study of the work of Wolfgang Hilbig, 247 pp., Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi, 2000.
with Jonathan Grix (eds.), East Germany – Continuity and Change: German Monitor, 46, 185 pp., 2000.
with Jonathan Grix (eds.), East German Distinctiveness in a unified Germany, 171pp., Birmingham, University of Birmingham Press, 2002.
The Pocket Essential to German Expressionist Film, 96 pp., London, Pocket Essential Press, 2002.
with Andrew Plowman (eds.), German Writers and the Politics of Culture: Dealing with the Stasi, 261pp., Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2003.
with Rob Stone (eds.), Dialogues with Hollywood (Special Edition of Studies in European Cinema), 2/1, 2004
Representing East Germany since Unification, 251pp., Oxford: Berg, 2005

Complete Publications List at: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/pc.htm

Ingo Cornils

1. Staatsexamen Hamburg;
2. Staatsexamen Hamburg
Dr Phil Hamburg

Senior Lecturer and Head of Department

e-mail: i.cornils@leeds.ac.uk

Full Staff Webpage: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/ic.htm

Research Supervision

Ingo Cornils is interested in supervising suitably qualified candidates who want to pursue research in the area of utopian thought, be it political, romantic or fantastic. His particular expertise is in the literary representation of the German Student Movement, the history of German Science Fiction from Kurd Laßwitz to Frank Schätzing, and the works and influence of Hermann Hesse. He is currently editing two books, one on Hermann Hesse and one on Uwe Timm.

Recent Publications

· "Long Memories. The German Student Movement in Recent Fiction", in: German Life and Letters, Issue 56:1, January 2003, pp. 89-101, Blackwell, 2003, ISSN 0016-8777

· "The Martians are Coming! War, Peace, Love, and Scientific Progress in H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds and Kurd Laßwitz's Auf zwei Planeten", in: Comparative Literature, Vol.55, No.1, Winter 2003, pp. 24-41, University of Oregon 2003, ISSN 0010-4124

· "Writing the revolution: The Literary Representation of the German Student Movement as Counter-Culture", in: Steve Giles / Maike Oergel (eds.), Counter-Cultures in Germany and Central Europe. From Sturm und Drang to Baader-Meinhof, pp. 295-314, Bern: Peter Lang 2003, ISBN 3-03910-007-6

· "Ein Glasperlenspiel im Internet. Hesse lesen im globalen Zeitalter", in: Andreas Solbach (Hg.), Hermann Hesse und die literarische Moderne, pp. 399-413, st 3609, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 2004, ISBN 3-518-45609-1

· 'Folgenschwere Schüsse. Die Kugeln auf Benno Ohnesorg und Rudi Dutschke im Spiegel der deutschen Literatur', in: Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik, Oct 2004

Complete Publications List at: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/ic.htm

Sydney G. Donald

MA Ph.D (St Andrews)

Senior Lecturer

FULL STAFF WEBPAGE: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/sgd.htm

Background

Syd Donald was born in Dundee and was educated at Morgan Academy and the University of St Andrews (MA, PhD). He also studied for a time at the University of Würzburg and the University of Freiburg. After graduating he taught in the Department of English at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg before joining the staff of the German Department at Leeds University.

Research Supervision

My research interests include the theory and practice of the grotesque, irony, Lessing, German romanticism, Sturm und Drang literature, the art and literature of the Romantic period, and 20th-century German and Swiss literature and in particular Friedrich Dürrenmatt.

Key Publications

'Dürrenmatt's Dogs: Intimations of Evil, Death and Spirituality,' Forum for Modern Language Studies, 38 (2002), 1, 63-74.
‘Re-writing, re-cycling. Friedrich Dürrenmatt and The Tragedy of King John, in Cousins at One Remove. Anglo-German Studies 2, ed. R. Byrn, Leeds, 1998.
Dürrenmatt: ‘Besuch der alten Dame’, Glasgow, 1990 and 1993.
‘Of Mazes, Men and Minotaurs: Friedrich Dürrenmatt and the Myth of the Labyrinth,’ New German Studies, 14 (1986/7), 187-231.
‘An Officer and a Gentleman: Minna von Barnhelm and the Rhetoric of Class and Gender,’ Forum for Modern Language Studies, 27 (1991), 1, 43-69.

Complete Publications List at: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/sgd.htm

Frank Finlay

BA, PGCE, PhD(Newcastle upon Tyne)

Professor of German &
Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures

e-mail: gllff@leeds.ac.uk

FULL STAFF WEBPAGE: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/fjf.htm

Research Supervision

Frank Finlay is interested in supervising suitably-qualified candidates in any area of post-1945 German culture and society. His particular expertise is in the field of German literature in its social and historical context; German literature and thought of the immediate postwar period; contemporary Austrian drama and the stage and screenplays of Peter Turrini; Literature and National Socialism; Post 1989 Narrative Fiction.

I am a member of the international team of editors working on the "Kölner Ausgabe" of Heinrich Böll's works.

Key Publications

‘The Rationality of Poetry’’: Heinrich Böll's Aesthetic Thinking. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 284pp. (1996)
[with Ralf Jeutter (eds.)]: ‘Centre Stage’: Contemporary Drama in Austria. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 252pp. (1999)
[with Stuart Taberner (eds.)]: Recasting German Identity, Culture, Literature and Politics in the Bonn Republic, Rochester: Camden House (2002)
[with Stuart Taberner (eds.)]: special edition of German Life and Letters on 'Emerging German Writers' (April 2002)
[with Markus Schäfer (eds.)]: Heinrich Böll, Billard um halb zehn. Kölner Ausgabe Band XI, 458pp. (critical apparatus 250-458pp.) Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne (2002)
[with Jochen Schubert (eds.)]: Heinrich Böll, Erzählungen 1947-1948. Kölner Ausgabe Band III, Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2003, 832pp. (critical apparatus 551-832pp.)
[with Viktor Böll (eds.)] Heinrich Böll, Werke 1956-1959 Kölner Ausgabe Band X, Cologne: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, (forthcoming 2005)

Complete Publications List at: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/fjf.htm

Ingrid Sharp

BA (Oxford) PGCE (York)

Senior Lecturer

FULL STAFF WEBPAGE: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/ies.htm

Background

She taught English, French and German at Wantage (1984-87) before becoming Head of German at Queen Mary's Sixth Form College, Basingstoke (1987-1989). In 1989 she joined the Department of German at Leeds.

Research Supervision

My research interests are women's history, especially the German women's movement of the 19th century with a developing interest in the rise of the New Woman in England and Germany.

Key Publications

‘Berlin and Gender Relations’ in Schoenfeld, C. and Finnan,C. (eds) Female Creativity in the Weimar Republic, Routledge 2004
The Sexual Unification of Germany, Journal of the History of Sexuality (2004)
‘Riding the Tiger: Ambivalent Representations of the New Woman in the Periodicals of the Weimar Republic’ in Margaret Beetham and Ann Heilmann (eds) New Woman Hybridities. Femininity, Feminism, and International Consumer Culture, 1880-1930 (Routledge 2003)
Diseases of the Body Politic: Josephine Butler and the Prostitution Campaigns ( Routledge 2002 - with Jane Jordan (eds.). This is a five-volume set of Butler’s texts and letters along with related material arranged thematically. It includes material relating to her continental campaigns.
‘German Women and the War’ for Lightning Strikes Twice, a three volume collection of articles on the First and Second World Wars (2001)
"At a Moral Crossroads: Vom Leben Getötet and the Regulation of Sexuality in the Weimar Republic." in Christiane Schoenfeld (ed.) The Prostitute in German Literature (Camden House, 2000)

Complete Publications List at: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/ies.htm

Stuart Taberner

BA Modern Languages (Cambridge)

MA Social Sciences (Chicago)

MA Modern Jewish Studies (Leeds)

Ph.D (Cambridge)

Senior Lecturer

e-mail: gllsjt@leeds.ac.uk

FULL STAFF WEBPAGE: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/sjt.htm

Background

University of Cambridge (BA and Ph.D)

University of Chicago (MA in The Social Sciences)

University of Leeds (MA in Modern Jewish Studies)

Research Supervision

Stuart Taberner is interested in supervising suitably-qualified candidates in any area of post-1945 German culture and society. His particular expertise is in the field of Holocaust literature and film, literary representations and intellectual debates on the legacy of Nazism in the post-1990 period and the relationship between non-Jewish Germans and Jewish Germans. More broadly, Stuart Taberner has just published a book on German Literature of the 1990s and is keen to supervise candidates on any area of contemporary literary studies, including post-1990 narrative fiction, writing by women, literature of the province, literature on Nazism, pop literature, German-Jewish fiction, or by key authors of the post-1990 period, including Martin Walser, Maxim Biller, Arnold Stadler, and W. G. Sebald, amongst others.

Key Publications

German Literature of the 1990s and Beyond (Rochester: Camden House, 2004)
Ed. with Frank Finlay, Recasting German Identity (Rochester: Camden House, 2002)
Ed. with Frank Finlay, special edition of German Life and Letters on 'Emerging German Writers', April 2002
Ed. German Literature in the Age of Globalisation (Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 2004)

Complete Publications List at: www.german.leeds.ac.uk/staff/sjt.htm

Funding

Information about current fee levels is given on the University website. The University Research Degrees and Scholarships Office provides full information on scholarships and other postgraduate funding opportunities offered by the University and by other institutions.

In addition to the above, the School of Modern Languages and Cultures offers a limited number of Home/EU level fees-only awards each year. This competition is open to international students, but the award given will remain the Home/EU fee level.

Application is via nomination from the relevant postgraduate admissions tutor so please indicate your interest in this scholarship when you submit your completed programme application form to the relevant tutor. Some departments of the School also offer their own scholarships and information about these can be found on Departmental websites.

See also:

University fees information

View details

University Research Degrees & Scholarships Office

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First Contact for enquiries regarding postgraduate work in the School of Modern Languages:

Sue Hamelman (S.L.Hamelman@leeds.ac.uk)