Universität Leipzig
The exchange with the Universität Leipzig is the most recent addition to our regular exchange programs. It is a particularly attractive program for students interested in adding a genuine philosophical dimension to their doctoral work. Leipzig is today arguably the center for the study of German Idealism and its impact on contemporary philosophical debates. For this reason, this particular exchange is run in cooperation with the University of Chicago Department of Philosophy. An interesting feature of the Chicago/Leipzig partnership is that it includes mini-seminars conducted on both sides of the Atlantic with faculty and students from both institutions. We see the Leipzig exchange developing in the years ahead as a key component of the Chicago Germanic Studies Department’s subspecialty in German philosophy.
Ljubljana
Over the last decade several leading philosophers affiliated with the University of Ljubljana and the Slovene Academy of Sciences have found their way to the University of Chicago in a variety of different contexts. Slavoj Zizek was a Critical Inquiry Visiting Professor. Mladen Dolar was Visiting Professor at the Center for Disciplinary Innovation (fall 2013) and a Romberg Visiting Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies on multiple occasions. Alenka Zupancic (along with Zizek and Dolar) has given lectures and conducted seminars at the Franke Institute for the Humanities. Two students of Dolar and Zupancic have given lectures for the Workshop on Central Europe. Eric Santner, the Philip and Ida Romberg Distinguished Service Professor in Modern Germanic Studies, has given numerous lectures in Ljubljana and taught with Zizek, Dolar, and Zupancic in a summer institute for experimental critical theory at the University of California at Irvine. Graduate students have done research in Ljubljana for their research projects.
Graduate Research Opportunities
The Germanic Studies Department has two regular exchange programs that offer students an excellent opportunity to spend a semester or a year abroad: with the University of Konstanz and with the Friedrich Schlegel Graduiertenschule für literaturwissenschaftliche Studien. Students also have the opportunity to work as on-site coordinators and/or instructors in our study-abroad program in Vienna. In addition, many of our students secure funding to conduct dissertation research abroad, either through the DAAD and the Fulbright Scholar Program or directly from institutions in German-speaking countries, such as the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften or the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. Finally, our students have the opportunity to conduct archival research at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
The University of Chicago Berlin Program provides students in the College with an opportunity to study for a German semester or an academic year in the exciting capital of a reunited Germany. The Program is operated by the Berlin Consortium for German Studies (BCGS), an association of six American universities (comprised of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, and Princeton). It is based at the Freie Universität (FU) Berlin, a pre-eminent German university located in Dahlem, a villa district in southwest Berlin. Program participants also have access to courses at other major Berlin institutions including Humboldt University and the Technical University.
The Fulbright Program is the largest international exchange program in the U.S. Graduating seniors, recent graduates, and graduate students are eligible to apply. Interested students are asked to contact the College Center for Research and Fellowships.
Students in Chicago's autumn-quarter Vienna Program study the history of Central Europe in one of its chief capitals, a city of extraordinary beauty and cultural richness. The three-course " Vienna in Western Civilization" sequence is compressed into the ten weeks of autumn quarter and taught in English. Students may complete their Western Civilization sequence while beginning (or continuing) the study of German language. Vienna program: contact Lauren Schneider, lschneider12@uchicago.edu and consult Vienna Study Abroad Programs.
