German PhD

University of Liverpool

As well as our established strengths in twentieth century and contemporary German literature and cultural studies, our world-leading researchers offer specialist supervision on German and comparative topics at the forefront of numerous important interdisciplinary fields. These include cultural sociology, film studies, sociolinguistics, language pedagogy, and translation studies.IntroductionOur German research interests focus in-depth on the twentieth century and contemporary period from a broad range of cultural, historical and linguistic perspectives. Colleagues in German are actively involved in cross-departmental research groups and contribute to supervision across a wide range of interdisciplinary or multilingual topics.Research topicsOur research interests reflect the following research themes:Cultural history of the 20th centuryContemporary late 20th and 21st-century literature and filmGerman sociolinguistics and pedagogyTranslation studies.You are welcome to suggest your own theme for a potential research project, but we particularly welcome proposals for postgraduate study in German in areas where we have substantial expertise:Cultural history of the 20th Century: Memory practice and especially musealisation of National Socialism and the GDR; Cultural politics and artistic practice in the German dictatorships; Images and memories of 1968; Periodical culture, especially literary and political magazinesContemporary late 20th and 21st-century literature and film, including writing by women and non-native speakers of German; Berlin literature in German and English; Representations of the military in film and literature; Literature of the fantastic and unreal; Autobiography/life-writingGerman sociolinguistics and pedagogy, in particular allochthonous and autochthonous minority languages; Emerging German varieties – multi-ethnic, urban and youth varieties; Language policies and language change; Trends in German language teachingTranslation studies, especially sociological approaches and literary translation.Research cultureResearch groups include:Eighteenth-century worldsMedia HistoriesImage, Sound, PerformanceConflict, Memory and HeritagePlace, Space and Belonging.