2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Nov 23, 2024

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

German Studies Concentration

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Language, Literature and Culture Overview

The Language, Literature and Culture Department aims to promote students’ competency in learning other languages, and to broaden and enrich their education through in-depth study of other cultures. Mastering a language includes listening, speaking, reading and writing proficiency. Students can easily apply these skills to other disciplines at Clark and to their future professions.

Students can study Arabic, ASL, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin and Spanish at Clark, and can major in Ancient Civilization, Comparative Literature, French or Spanish. It is also possible, at the department’s discretion, to major in more than one language taught at Clark (the Combined Languages major). Students can also apply skills in Asian languages to an Asian Studies major and skills in Hebrew to a concentration in Jewish Studies.

The Language, Literature and Culture Department is part of the Alice Coonley Higgins School of Humanities.

For more information, please visit the Language, Literature and Culture Department’s website.

Language Placement

Please use the chart on the department’s main web page to determine what course level to take, depending on how many previous years of the language you’ve had. The University reviews transcripts to ensure that students are not over-qualified for a particular course. Students with native or near-native fluency in a language should consult with the coordinator in that language to determine the appropriate level.

For more on language placement, please consult the Department’s Language Placement Guidelines page.

Study Abroad

Participation in a Study Abroad program gives you a chance to view the interests and issues you care about from the perspective of another culture. Students in LL&C are encouraged to study abroad in exciting cities in Chile, China, the Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Senegal, and Spain. The staff in Clark’s Office of Study Abroad can help you find an experience that fits your requirements.

German Concentration Requirements

To qualify, a student must complete six courses in the chosen discipline; at least three should be taken at Clark (i.e., as many as three may be taken abroad, or at another institution).

These six courses must include a Language component (intermediate German or equivalent; higher level taken elsewhere or abroad would also count), and a Culture component (four courses of which at least two must be two-hundred level courses and at least one must be from a department other than German or Comparative Literature). Please see the list of eligible courses below.

Besides the German Concentration, students may elect German as their primary foreign language within the context of the comparative literature major.

Language Courses

GERM 103 Intermediate German I

GERM 104 Intermediate German II

Culture Courses

CMLT 130 The National Imagination

CMLT 162 Fairy Tales of the World

CMLT 222 Faust and the Faustian

GERM 220 Global Freud

GERM 230 The German Discovery of Sex

GERM 250 German Film and the Frankfurt School

GERM 286 German-Jewish Culture and Modern Multiculturalism

GERM 299 Directed Study

HGS 110 Antisemitism and Racism in the Modern World

HGS 268 Special Topics in Genocide

HIST 153 Europe in the Age of Extremes: the 20th Century

HIST 165 Nazi Germany and the Holocaust

HIST 175 Holocaust: Agency and Action

HIST 237 The Holocaust Perpetrators

MUSC 101 Bach and Before: Exploring Music in the Early Modern World

MUSC 102 Music of the Classical and Romantic Periods

MUSC 104 Music and Modernism in Society, 1885-1945

MUSC 219 From Wagnerism to Nazism: the grandeur and catastrophe of German music

PHIL 143 History of Early Modern Philosophy

PHIL 169 Aesthetics

PHIL 256 Kant

PHIL 262 - Nietzsche

Language, Literature and Culture Faculty

Program

María Acosta Cruz, Ph.D.
Eduard Arriaga-Arango, Ph.D.
Belén Atienza, Ph.D.
Odile Ferly, Ph.D.
Allison Fong, Ph.D.
Everett Fox, Ph.D.
Beth Gale, Ph.D.
Dolores Juan-Moreno, Ph.D.
Alexander Murphy, Ph.D.
Juan Pablo Rivera, Ph.D.

Adjunct

Sawsan Berjawi, M.A., M.Ed.
John Dunn
Lili Foti, Ph.D.
Tyran Grillo, Ph.D.
Kuylain Howard, M.A.
Talia Mugg
Elizabeth O’Connell-Inman, M.A.
Marcela Otálora, M.A.
Joanne Qu, Ph.D.
Chris Synodinos, Ph.D.
Yanna Zhang, Ph.D.

Emeriti

Carol D’Lugo, Ph.D.
Marvin D’Lugo, Ph.D.
Hartmut Kaiser, Ph.D.
Dorothy Kaufmann, Ph.D.
Constance Montross, Ph.D.
Walter Schatzberg, Ph.D.
Michael Spingler, Ph.D.

Languages, Literature and Culture Courses

Courses offered within the last 2 Academic Years

Listing by Fields of Specialization

Arabic

Chinese

Classics

Comparative Literature

French

Most advanced French courses listed as offered periodically are available once every three years.

German

Hebrew

Japanese

Spanish

The Spanish program is based on a three-year rotation. Advanced courses listed as offered periodically are generally available at least once every three years.