German MScR

Research profile

One of the University’s larger modern language subject areas, German has earned its place as a significant centre for research, with half of our research ranked as internationally excellent or world leading in the latest Research Assessment Exercise.

The size of our graduate school means we are able to support a broad range of German and Austrian cultural and literary research themes, from the medieval period to the present.

Current interests include:

• 18th century and Romanticism studies
• censorship studies
• contemporary German literature
• cultural and political studies and literary theory
• gender studies
• German and Austrian Jewish literature
• identity studies
• literature and culture of the German/Austrian fin-de-siècle
• literature and culture of the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist era
• migrant literature in German
• palaeography and Medieval textual studies
• post-Holocaust literature
• post-war West and East German literary and cultural studies
• the Medieval German epic
• theatre and performance studies
• travel writing
• Turkish-German literature

Training and support

We promote the connection between language and culture through a number of extracurricular programmes, both formal and informal.

You will have the opportunity to take part in our annual play, which is commonly a collaborative effort with a noted German author or playwright.

We organise regular film nights, followed by Stammtisch, and gallery visits are also offered.

We maintain close links with the Scottish arm of the Goethe Institut and the Edinburgh German Circle, which both provide opportunities to make contacts and socialise with the city’s sizeable German community.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a related subject.