Student Work
Senior Cortnie Shupe has a triple major in German, Spanish, and International Studies. "It's not as difficult as it might sound," she laughs. Many of her classes satisfy requirements in multiple departments, and she finds the three disciplines highly complimentary.
Spending time abroad improved Cortnie's German skills tremendously. "It's a hard language to learn solely in the classroom," she says. During her junior year, Cortnie obtained a global internship through the UO's Office of International Education IE3 program. She worked for an intercultural training firm that helps German business people adjust to life in America. For one of the firm's clients, Cortnie researched school systems and doctors for a German family relocating to Chicago. Her job was to bridge the cultural gap between the German way and the American way.
"The experience really helped my fluency a lot,” Cortnie says. She also got upper-division credit in both German and International Studies.
Cortnie also enjoys the tight-knit community of the Germanic Studies Department. "It's really small. You get to know the faculty and your fellow students really well over the years."
Cortnie is interested in economic development, particularly in how Germany provides economic aid to developing countries. She is currently a finalist for a Fulbright Scholarship that will allow her to continue her studies in graduate school in Berlin.
Senior Eric Anderson has been studying German since high school. "It's fun learning another language," he says. "When you go to another country, they appreciate you more when you speak a bit of their language." When Eric came to the UO he decided to combine a major in German with a minor in business.
He spent his entire junior year in Stuttgart at the University of Hohenheim, one of more than 100 exchange programs in more than 70 countries available though the University of Oregon's Office of International Education and Exchange.
"It was great," Eric says of his experience abroad. "I met a lot of great people from all over the world. It's really the only way to truly learn a language."
After graduation, Eric wants to join the Peace Corps, and learn how to assess a community's needs and issues. He plans to apply that knowledge to starting or joining a nonprofit or community-oriented business either here or abroad.
Selected Faculty Work
Professor and Department Head Susan Anderson works on German and Austrian narrative from the late nineteenth century to the present, with emphasis on identity, gender, multiculturalism, and history. She is currently completing a book-length project on notions of the foreign in contemporary German literature and film.
Professor Alexander Mathäs has taught courses on drama, the Doppelgänger-motif, Postcolonial literature, postwar literature, and German culture from the Reformation period to the present. He is currently working on a book entitled "Cloning the Bourgeois-Subject: Self and Other in German Literature, 1770-1848."
Associate Professor Ellen Rees' research interests range from Scandinavian prose modernism and experimental prose fiction to Scandinavian cinema. Her teaching interests include Norwegian language, contemporary Scandinavian culture, and a wide range of Scandinavian authors.
Career Prospects
A bachelor’s degree in German enables students to pursue careers in college and secondary teaching, international business, government and foreign service, and translation and editorial work. Graduates of the department often go into graduate programs in German, Scandinavian, linguistics, history, and comparative literature. Recent graduates of the department have also gone on to schools of law and business.