Germanic Languages

Major, Concentrate, or Minor in German! Take a tour of our program here.

Explore our German Graduate Program and the focus in Yiddish Studies.


 

May 6, 2024

In the Department of Germanic Languages, we are disheartened by the events unfolding on campus. We are concerned for the safety, academic progress, classroom experience, and rights of our students. We condemn all forms of hate speech, harassment, and incitement to violence. United in our strong opposition to any form of antisemitism, racism, and Islamophobia, we are committed to hearing and honoring different political perspectives and perceptions. We do not believe that these educational and civic goals are in any way furthered by the presence of the police on our campus, ever more so as students remain locked out from the space in which we want to teach and learn and engage each other’s perspectives. We condemn the university’s decision to bring armed riot police onto campus without proper consultation with the university senate and call on the university administration to revoke disproportionately harsh disciplinary responses.

Signed: Executive Committee

Upcoming Events

Language Courses Germanic Languages Spring 2024

Flyer displaying language courses offered at Germanic Languages Columbia University in Spring 2024

AY 2024-2025 Course Schedule

 Please note:  The course schedule may be subject to change, and students are encouraged  to confirm the course listings in the online Directory of Courses and Vergil, where course descriptions and class meeting times are updated regularly. 

Please contact the following people with questions about our current offerings or with questions about undergraduate or graduate programs of study:

German Placement & Proficiency Exams

Please click here for information on the German Placement Exam. 

 

Please clicke here for inforamtion on the German Proficiency Exam. 

News

 

Spring 2024

Professor Stefan Andriopoulos participated in the MoMA Salon 48 "No More Likes", more information on the event and a link to his panel contribution is available on the Museum of Modern Art's website.

Congratulations to Chloe Vaughn, PhD '24! Chloe is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Carleton College, MN. 

Congratulations to Jutta Schmiers-Heller, our Director of the German Language Program, who received a Columbia Humanities Award for Community Building and Engagement in the inaugural 2024 competition. Exciting and much deserved!

Summer 2023

Congratulations to Ross Shields, PhD '19! Ross is currently Visiting Assistant Professor, German Studies, Macalester College.

Congratulations to Thomas Preston, Ph.D. '23! Thomas will be beginning a two-year position as Visiting Assistant Professor at Middlebury College, Vermont, in August 2023.

Congratulations to Xan Holt, Ph.D. '20! He has accepted the position of Visiting Assistant Professor at Northwestern University, 

Congratulations to Miriam Chorley-Schulz, Ph.D. '21! She will be joining the University of Oregon as Assistant Professor and Mokin Fellow of Holocaust Studies.

Fall 2022

Congratulations to Samuel J. Spinner, Ph.D. '12! He is the 2022 recipient of the Modern Language Association's (MLA)  Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Germanic Languages and Literatures for his work Jewish Primitivism.

Spring 2022

Congratulations to Professor Andreas Huyssen who has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Congratulations to Sophie Schweiger, Ph.D. '21! She just accepted a position as Assistant Professor in Germanic Languages at Yale University. 

Congratulations to Alwin Jorga Franke, Ph.D. '21! He will be joining Stetson University as Assistant Professor. 

Summer 2021

Congratulations Xan Holt, Ph.D. '20! He has just accepted a postdoc at Northwestern University. 

Congratulations to Alwin Franke, Ph.D. '21! He will be joining Reed College as a Visiting Assistant Professor of German. 

Congratulations to Michael Lipkin, Ph.D. '18! He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor, in the Department of German, Russian, Italian, and Arabic, at Hamilton College. 

Congratulations to Miriam Schulz, Ph.D. '21! She will be the Ray D. Wolfe Postdoctoral Fellow (AY2021–2023), at the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies/Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies, at the University of Toronto.

Congratulations to Sophie Schweiger, Ph.D. '21!  She will be joining Colgate University as a Visiting Assistant Professor for AY2021-2022. 

Fall 2020

Professor Annie Pfeifer’s course, “Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Power, Gender, and Narrative,” featured in Columbia News Article, “Professors Embrace New Technology to Adapt to Online Instruction.” https://news.columbia.edu/news/professors-use-new-technology-for-online-learning

Summer 2020

Congratulations to Xan Holt, Ph.D. '20! He has just accepted a full-time lecturer position at Iowa State University. 

Congratulations to Tomasz Kurianowicz, Ph.D. '20!  He has been offered the co-directorship of the Feuilleton of Berliner Zeitung, starting July 1, and with a particular  emphasis on "Society and Debate"/humanities topics.

 

Fall 2019

The department is excited to welcome Annie Pfeifer to the faculty! Meet our new professor.

Christoph Schaub has joined the German Literature and Cultural Studies Department at the University of Vechta, Germany, as Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter. 

Sophie Salvo has joined the German department at the University of Chicago as Assistant Professor. Congratulations, Sophie! 

Michael Swellander, a Ph.D. from 2018, is now a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of German at the University of Iowa.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has reviewed Stefan Andriopoulos’s new book Gespenster, describing its readings of Kant, Hegel, Schiller, and Schopenhauer as "persuasive, precise, and elegant."