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Key information

Award:
MPhil
PhD
Study mode:
Full time
Part time
Campus:
Strand Campus
Duration:
Expected to be: MPhil two years FT, three years PT; PhD three years FT, four-six years PT. October to October, February to February or June to June.

Joint PhDs available: Exciting opportunities to gain a joint PhD with the University of Stuttgart/Humboldt University Berlin.

The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers research strengths and opportunities for PhD supervision in German cultural and historical studies from the Middle Ages to the present day, including literary studies, film and cinema studies; theatre studies; literary and cultural theory; and the history of ideas. The Department’s links with History and European Studies also provide an important focus for research on migrant communities; post-1945 political movements; gender and politics; international relations; European identities and German history.

The Department has a vibrant and energetic research culture, in which postgraduate research students are fully involved. In the recent Research Excellence Framework assessment of our research (REF 2021) our research environment was rated 100% ‘world-leading’ (4*), and research impact was rated 87.5% ‘world leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’ (3*).

Current number of academic staff (German): 9 permanent (all research active).

Current number of research students: 12.

Recent staff publications

  • Melancholia: The Western Malady
  • The Essential Goethe
  • Bridal Quest Epics in Medieval Germany
  • Punishment and Penitential Practices in Medieval German Writing
  • The German Cinema Book
  • Poetry and Parental Bereavement in Early Modern Lutheran Germany
  • Crisis and Form in Ingeborg Bachmann’s Late Verse and Prose
  • Austria in Transit: Displacement and the Nation-State
  • Designing one nation: The politics of economic culture and trade in divided Germany
  • German division as shared experience: Interdisciplinary perspectives on the postwar everyday
  • Aftermath: German-Speaking Culture in the Wake of World War I
  • Phantom Images: The Figure of the Ghost in the Work of Christa Wolf and Irina Liebmann
  • Performing New German Realities: Turkish-German Scripts of Postmigration

 

Current Research Projects

  • Goethe's thought
  • sin, confession and penance in the literatures of the German lands in the 11th and 12th centuries
  • the moving image as intercultural contact-zone
  • German authors and poets in Stuart Britain
  • forced migration and the politics of experimental writing
  • inter-cultural artistic processes in migration
  • Islam in contemporary German culture
  • consumer culture in post-2000 Austrian literature
  • German women writers and activism around WWI
  • port cities as zones of encounter and identity formation

UK Tuition Fees 2023/24

Full time tuition fees:

£5,820 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£5,820 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£2,910 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£2,910 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

International Tuition Fees 2023/24

Full time tuition fees:

£22,900 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£22,900 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£11,450 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£11,450 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

UK Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees:

£6,168 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£6,168 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£3,084 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£3,084 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

International Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees:

£24,786 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£24,786 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£12,393 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£12,393 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.

Base campus

strand-quad
Strand Campus

Located on the north bank of the River Thames, the Strand Campus houses King's College London's arts and sciences faculties.

Postgraduate research environment

As a postgraduate research student in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures you will join a vibrant research culture which features sustained reflection and dialogue on our subject areas. You will work closely with designated primary and secondary supervisors, and benefit from regular feedback from other staff members. You will see your primary supervisor regularly and are strongly encouraged to attend research seminars and research-related events in the department and beyond. There are multiple opportunities to gain experience in the presentation and dissemination of your research and to exchange ideas with fellow students and members of staff.

We offer a dedicated study space for our postgraduate research students in the Virginia Woolf building.

The PhD programme in German offers a diverse range of postgraduate students working in all kinds of areas. We offer a range of distinct PhD programmes, including joint programmes that offer unique opportunities for co-supervision in the UK and Germany. The MPhil/PhD in German is based at King’s College London, and leads to a PhD from King’s College. Our Joint-PhDs with the Humboldt University of Berlin or the University of Stuttgart involve at least one year at our partner institutions in Berlin or Stuttgart, and lead to a Joint-PhD conferred by both institutions.

Our current research students work mainly in cultural and historical studies from the Middle Ages to the present day, including literary studies, film and cinema studies; theatre studies; literary and cultural theory; and the history of ideas. The Department's links with History and European Studies also provide an important focus for research on migrant communities; post-1945 political movements; gender and politics; international relations; European identities and German history.

Joint PhDs - Benefits of collaboration

The Joint-PhD is an innovative integrated programme that offers unique opportunities for the very best PhD supervision in a pan-European context. The programmes offered provide candidates with the opportunity to divide their PhD study between two prestigious universities enjoying full supervision at both. While supervisions and regular graduate seminars enable students to construct a theoretical, historical and systematic framework for their research, the Joint-PhD also organizes international colloquia and workshops at which students can present and discuss their work with peers and academic staff across the institutions involved. The programme builds on an extensive network of existing institutional links, joint teaching experience and collaborative graduate programmes between King’s and the partner universities.

Joint PhD with the Humboldt University, Berlin

The programme builds on an extensive network of existing institutional links, joint teaching experience, emerging research collaborations, and collaborative graduate programmes between King’s and the Humboldt. Current and recent research projects include studies on the Modernist Novel, female sexuality in medieval writing, transtestimonial Holocaust memory, German-language texts of post-Yugoslav migration, and 21st-century monster texts.

Joint PhD with the University of Stuttgart

This well-established PhD programme leads to the award of a Joint PhD. It provides candidates with the opportunity to divide their PhD study between two prestigious universities, and to access resources at partner institutions including the German Literature Archive in Marbach and the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation. Recent and current research projects include the internationalization of satire in Early Modern texts; history, translation and poetics in early 20th-century texts; the global dissemination of theories of totalitarianism; the role of journals in the dissemination of poetics; Jewish women’s life writing.

FAQs about joint PhDs can be found on the King’s Worldwide web pages

Postgraduate training

Training for postgraduate research students is offered at various levels throughout PhD registration, including, at King’s, the courses and sessions offered by the Department, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Centre for Doctoral Studies and the King’s Language Centre. Further training is offered by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership and the Institute of Modern Languages Research of the University of London. Research training will include a range of different kinds, including research ethics and integrity, bibliographic and referencing skills, the opportunity to learn or improve language skills, career support, job applications, networking, working with community partners, and much more.

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UK Tuition Fees 2023/24

Full time tuition fees:

£5,820 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£5,820 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£2,910 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£2,910 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

International Tuition Fees 2023/24

Full time tuition fees:

£22,900 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£22,900 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£11,450 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£11,450 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

UK Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees:

£6,168 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£6,168 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£3,084 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£3,084 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

International Tuition Fees 2024/25

Full time tuition fees:

£24,786 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£24,786 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

Part time tuition fees:

£12,393 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research)

£12,393 per year (MPhil/PhD, German Research with Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin or University of Stuttgart)

These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.

Base campus

strand-quad
Strand Campus

Located on the north bank of the River Thames, the Strand Campus houses King's College London's arts and sciences faculties.

Postgraduate research environment

As a postgraduate research student in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures you will join a vibrant research culture which features sustained reflection and dialogue on our subject areas. You will work closely with designated primary and secondary supervisors, and benefit from regular feedback from other staff members. You will see your primary supervisor regularly and are strongly encouraged to attend research seminars and research-related events in the department and beyond. There are multiple opportunities to gain experience in the presentation and dissemination of your research and to exchange ideas with fellow students and members of staff.

We offer a dedicated study space for our postgraduate research students in the Virginia Woolf building.

The PhD programme in German offers a diverse range of postgraduate students working in all kinds of areas. We offer a range of distinct PhD programmes, including joint programmes that offer unique opportunities for co-supervision in the UK and Germany. The MPhil/PhD in German is based at King’s College London, and leads to a PhD from King’s College. Our Joint-PhDs with the Humboldt University of Berlin or the University of Stuttgart involve at least one year at our partner institutions in Berlin or Stuttgart, and lead to a Joint-PhD conferred by both institutions.

Our current research students work mainly in cultural and historical studies from the Middle Ages to the present day, including literary studies, film and cinema studies; theatre studies; literary and cultural theory; and the history of ideas. The Department's links with History and European Studies also provide an important focus for research on migrant communities; post-1945 political movements; gender and politics; international relations; European identities and German history.

Joint PhDs - Benefits of collaboration

The Joint-PhD is an innovative integrated programme that offers unique opportunities for the very best PhD supervision in a pan-European context. The programmes offered provide candidates with the opportunity to divide their PhD study between two prestigious universities enjoying full supervision at both. While supervisions and regular graduate seminars enable students to construct a theoretical, historical and systematic framework for their research, the Joint-PhD also organizes international colloquia and workshops at which students can present and discuss their work with peers and academic staff across the institutions involved. The programme builds on an extensive network of existing institutional links, joint teaching experience and collaborative graduate programmes between King’s and the partner universities.

Joint PhD with the Humboldt University, Berlin

The programme builds on an extensive network of existing institutional links, joint teaching experience, emerging research collaborations, and collaborative graduate programmes between King’s and the Humboldt. Current and recent research projects include studies on the Modernist Novel, female sexuality in medieval writing, transtestimonial Holocaust memory, German-language texts of post-Yugoslav migration, and 21st-century monster texts.

Joint PhD with the University of Stuttgart

This well-established PhD programme leads to the award of a Joint PhD. It provides candidates with the opportunity to divide their PhD study between two prestigious universities, and to access resources at partner institutions including the German Literature Archive in Marbach and the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation. Recent and current research projects include the internationalization of satire in Early Modern texts; history, translation and poetics in early 20th-century texts; the global dissemination of theories of totalitarianism; the role of journals in the dissemination of poetics; Jewish women’s life writing.

FAQs about joint PhDs can be found on the King’s Worldwide web pages

Postgraduate training

Training for postgraduate research students is offered at various levels throughout PhD registration, including, at King’s, the courses and sessions offered by the Department, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Centre for Doctoral Studies and the King’s Language Centre. Further training is offered by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership and the Institute of Modern Languages Research of the University of London. Research training will include a range of different kinds, including research ethics and integrity, bibliographic and referencing skills, the opportunity to learn or improve language skills, career support, job applications, networking, working with community partners, and much more.

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Key information

Award:
MPhil
PhD
Study mode:
Full time
Part time
Campus:
Strand Campus
Duration:
Expected to be: MPhil two years FT, three years PT; PhD three years FT, four-six years PT. October to October, February to February or June to June.

Accommodation

Discover your accommodation options and explore our residences.