German PhD

University of Bristol

Staff and postgraduate students in the Department of German pursue research across a diverse and dynamic spectrum of German studies, covering many aspects of language, linguistics, literature, culture, history, and translation, from the early modern period to the present day. We are committed to supporting a positive and collaborative research culture, developing together exciting and innovative research that helps shape, and reshape, our discipline. We offer expertise in German-language literature and culture in its national, transnational, and comparative contexts (including the novel, poetry, theatre and performance, film, visual cultures, and translation), with particular strengths in the classical age, the long 19th century, the 20th century, and the post-Wende and contemporary periods. Our research makes cutting-edge contributions to fields including Comparative and Transnational German Studies; Exile Studies; German-language Cultural and Literary Studies; and Memory Studies. We also have specific expertise in historical and modern sociolinguistics (in particular in language variation and change, vernacularisation and standardisation, and in language attitudes and language policy), as well as in the history and politics of Germany and Austria since 1800 (including the political East). We benefit from strong links with partner universities and research centres in Germany and Austria, and further research connections around the world. We warmly welcome applications from graduates wishing to pursue research programmes with us. Interdisciplinary, comparative, and cross-language research is also particularly encouraged and supported in German and across the School of Modern Languages and the wider faculty. Our postgraduates are fully integrated into a professionally and personally supportive departmental and school community. You will be encouraged to present your work at departmental and school-level research events, and at colloquia elsewhere within the faculty, and beyond. We will help develop your full range of academic skills, including publication, and we may be able to offer opportunities for some undergraduate teaching experience after your first year.