Program Overview

Program Overview

The Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies is a fully merged graduate program, granting the PhD in German Studies, with a joint admissions process and a single diploma bearing the names of both Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its organizing principle is a careful combination of disciplinary rigor and interdisciplinary flexibility that recognizes the fundamental interrelation of all the cultural expressions of societies where the German language is spoken.

Program Description

The program features an advantageous combination of individual attention in small classes and a close connection to the broader communities of literature, cultural studies, and German Studies at Duke University and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The core German Studies faculty represent all fields of the discipline, including literature and culture from 1000 to the present, gender and sexuality studies, German-Jewish studies, science studies, critical race theory, film and media studies, literary theory and poetics, political theory, philosophy, and intellectual history. Multiple program options are available to students, and interdisciplinary work is strongly encouraged.

Admission Criteria

Admission is highly competitive and limited to about five students a year. Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are committed to offering six years of full funding, including tuition, to admitted students. Students take courses full time in their first year of study; in subsequent years they acquire teaching experience at both a private (Duke) and a public (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) university.

Application Information

• Application Terms Available: Fall
• Application Deadline: To assure full consideration, completed applications should be submitted by December 10.
• Department-Specific Application Requirements:
  • Statement of Purpose Guidelines: In order to help the Admissions Committee assess how well your interests and goals fit with our graduate program, please provide a statement of purpose of approximately 650 to 2,000 words. At the top of your statement please insert a brief description (20 keywords or fewer) of your specific research interests. In addition, please discuss your goals in pursuing the Carolina-Duke German Studies Ph.D, your previous study abroad experience(s), and the trajectory of your academic career thus far.
  • Writing Sample: Please upload a single writing sample of approximately 7,000 to 8,000 words that represents your very best academic writing. Typically, this is an essay previously submitted as an academic requirement in a humanities course of relevance to German Studies. It should make an interpretive argument supported by evidence from one or more literary texts or other cultural media. You may submit a sample in either English or German; however, we strongly encourage you to submit a paper in your native language. If neither is your native language, choose either of these two languages over which you exercise the greatest mastery. The goal of the writing sample is to demonstrate your intellectual capabilities, not merely your English or German language proficiency.

Program Statistics

• German Studies (Carolina-Duke German Program): PhD Admissions and Enrollment Statistics
• German Studies (Carolina-Duke German Program): PhD Completion Rate Statistics
• German Studies (Carolina-Duke German Program): PhD Time to Degree Statistics
• German Studies (Carolina-Duke German Program): PhD Career Outcomes Statistics

General Information

• Faculty working with students: 19
• Students: 26
• Students receiving Financial Aid: 100%
• Part-time study available: No
• Test required: No GRE test required. Non-native speakers of English will need to take the TOEFL or IELTS to demonstrate English language proficiency.