General

Letter from the Chair TBA Stefan Soldovieri Chair  Undergraduate Report: Highlights from the Academic Year 2023-24  by Professor Hang-Sun Kim, Associate Chair, Undergraduate Studies I am excited to share highlights from our vibrant Undergraduate German Studies community during the academic year 2023-24. Our energetic German Studies Undergraduate Student Union (GSSU) fostered a strong sense of community through their Deutsch Delight get-togethers, popular pub nights and thought-provoking film screenings, providing opportunities for students to connect and deepen their appreciation for German culture and language. A standout event was an inspiring interview with Jennifer May, Canada’s Ambassador to China, who shared how her undergraduate studies in German and Political Science shaped her diplomatic career. She gave us a lively, humorous, and eloquent account of her studies abroad in Vienna, her overseas assignment in Bonn, and the unexpected opportunities that were open to her because of her knowledge of the German language and culture. We are fortunate to have a community of intellectually talented and engaged students, and I am delighted to congratulate our exceptional undergraduate award recipients for their remarkable academic achievements: Fiona Ji (Helmut Krueger Undergraduate Scholarship), Hong Ming Huai (Sara Frieda-Miransky Memorial Bursary), Nadine Levinstein (The Anne Glass Memorial Scholarship), ... Read More »

Letter from the Chair In 2022-23, our Chair, Stefan Soldovieri, embarked on a well-deserved sabbatical after deftly shepherding the Department through nearly three years of pandemic uncertainty. To be an administrator under such unprecedented circumstances is no easy task, and we are grateful to Stefan for the extraordinary leadership he displayed throughout those years. We are equally thrilled at his return as we embark on this new academic year 2023-24.  The return to in-person operations on the St George campus last year offered no reprieve from the theme of ongoing transition and recalibration, also for our Department, as we struck a new executive team during my year as Acting Chair.  We sorely missed the invaluable wisdom and institutional memory associated with our Student Placement Coordinator and Assistant to the Chair, Helena Juenger who also happened to be on maternity leave, but we were incredibly fortunate to be able to hire a U of T graduate, Ryan Masters. His doctorate in German colonial history helped him to acculturate to our program while our newly forged executive team, which included Professors John Noyes, Hang-Sun Kim, and Stefana Gargova, was similarly learning the ropes. What a year it was, tasked as we were ... Read More »

Letter from the Chair Dear Friends of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, It was a delight to see students and faculty begin return to the Department and our beautiful campus in 2021-22 and we look forward to even more in-person events and activities becoming possible this academic year. My thanks to everyone for their positivity and support throughout this challenging time. During the past academic year, the Department was engaged in a comprehensive cyclical review mandated by the Province of Ontario. The consultation process encompassed faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, colleagues in our administrative offices and faculty from other units and programs. The nearly 200-page final document submitted in spring 2022 reports on everything from curriculum and learning objectives, student satisfaction and course enrolment, our success in securing external grants and research output, to faculty and administrative structure and our physical spaces. A concluding ‘Future Directions’ section identifies in broad terms a course for renewing our programs and activities on a number of levels. In the meantime, we’ve received the comments of our external reviewers, senior colleagues at institutions in Canada and abroad. In addition to praising our wonderful students, strong undergraduate and graduate programs, pioneering outreach initiatives ... Read More »

Newsletter 2021-22 Read More »

Apply now for the 2022-23 graduate program Read More »

DAAD German Language Teaching & Learning Workshop The fourth annual conference offers the chance to learn from experts in the field and to mingle with peers from other Canadian universities in an intellectually stimulating and collegial context. We are especially excited about this year’s line-up of speakers: Daniel Bowles from Boston College, Nicolay Ostrau from Dartmouth College, Maria Morrison from McGill University, James Skidmore from Waterloo University, Jason Lieblang from UBC, and a speaker from the Goethe-Institut Toronto. Coming soon! December 8th and 9th 2018 Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, 1 Devonshire Place Read More »

See you at the Holiday Party! Read More »

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Do you have previous knowledge of German? If you do, you are required to take a Placement Test that will allow us to determine the best place for you to start studying German at the UofT. Depending on your level of proficiency – perhaps you have lived or studied in Germany, have spoken some German at home, or taken high school German – you may be able to place out of introductory courses and begin taking intermediate and advanced language, literature, and culture offerings right away. This will not only allow you to get the most out of your university studies but also help our instructors to focus on students who are learning German from scratch. Please note: You are required to take the test if you have had any previous exposure to German. Self-placement is not permitted and will result in removal from the course. To schedule a placement test please contact our Undergraduate Assistant, Gayle Grisdale. You will then be sent a Quercus invitation to take the test, together with detailed instructions. The test itself will take about 30 minutes to complete. You will be informed about the result within a couple of days through the Grades feature ... Read More »