German Studies PhD – (Ph.D.)

Manchester is one of the leading research centres for German Studies in the UK. 55% of its research was deemed 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' by the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and, in the volume and quality of its research, the Department was rated third out of 29 in the country.

Staff research interests range from modern German history, film and cultural studies, to Goethe, Romanticism, and modern German literature. A lively research culture is maintained through regular research seminars and academic conferences such as `Literary Value and Canon Formation in the German Tradition after Postmodernism' (2004), `Municipalism - Regionalism - Nationalism' (2006), and `Creolising Europe' (2007). German staff members have also used the new synergies provided by the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST to embed their research in fresh interdisciplinary research clusters: a) cultural identities, with an organisational focus in CULTMEP (the Centre for the Study of Cultural Forms of Modern European Politics); b) linguistics, with an organisational focus in CTIS (the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies); and c) migrations and diaspora, with an organisational focus in MDCSN (the Migrations and Diasporas Cultural Studies Network). The latter is funded by the AHRC, as was a recent major study of `The Modern Restoration: The Discourses of Style in German Literature 1930-1960'. The massive European Science Foundation programme entitled `Representations of the Past: the Writing of National Histories in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe' is also run from Manchester. This five year project involves over 150 scholars from about thirty European countries who work in four teams and will publish their results in a six-volume book series published by Palgrave Macmillan between 2007 and 2009.