Department of German

Our Department has remained the highest-rated research department in German within London over many years and was again awarded a top score in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Measured by the leading categories of 4-star research and 3-star research, King’s College’s German Department is ranked first in the UK with four other universities’ departments. When all categories are taken together and weighted according to the HEFCE funding criteria, our German Department ranks second behind Oxford, followed by Cambridge. We have twelve full-time staff (four professors and eight lecturers), several part-time lecturers and teaching fellows, as well as two LektorInnen recruited through the German Academic Exchange Service and the Austrian Institute, and further part-time staff. Research income since 2001 has totalled over £1 million. Staff within the Department contribute extensively to the MA and MRes in German and Comparative Literature, the MA in Film Studies, the MA in Comparative Literature and the MA in European Studies. The Department also supervises PhD students on topics related to their research specialisms, and runs several innovative Joint-PhD programmes with the Humboldt university Berlin, the University of Stuttgart and the Univeristy of Paris, Sorbonne.

Students in the department participate fully in the induction and training programmes of the School Graduate Programme and the Graduate School; they receive additional support from the department. The department also subscribes to the training programme of the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, which organises skills sessions and workshops. The department organises a regular graduate seminar in which both staff and students participate, together with representatives from our international partners.

The Maughan Library has dedicated facilities for Arts & Humanities graduate students. The department shares a graduate lounge and study room with other departments.

Graduate School and School of Arts & Humanities studentships and bursaries.