Ours is a program of medium size whose six German and two Scandinavian specialists collaborate fully in an intellectual enterprise focused on modernity. Our various sub-concentrations, which include philosophical and theoretical discourses, Holocaust- and memory-studies, visual culture, folk traditions and German Shakespeare Studies, represent substantive links to other departments and programs, in particular Philosophy, History, Judaic Studies, Art History, Music, English, Comparative Literature and Folklore.

Composed of faculty from departments and programs across campus, the German Studies Committee is an interdisciplinary collective committed to the study of theoretical and historical structures of delimitation in matters of German-speaking culture. Each year, the committee sponsors two conferences on a given theme, the first a general German Studies conference, the second a musicological specification of the same theme held in conjunction with the Oregon Bach Festival. The theme for 2006-2007 was the shifting borderline between politics and religion. The focus for 2007-2008 was Nature/Culture. The symposia for this year, both of which are planned for Spring term, are 1. the Annual Oregon Bach Festival German Studies Symposium, entitled "Midsummer Night Dreams, Midsummer Night Realities," on May 14-15, 2009 (details to come), and 2. Conference on "Borderlines in Psychoanalysis, Borderlines of Psychoanalysis," on April 30-May 1, 2009. Speakers include: Willy Apollon, Danielle Bergeron, Lucie Cantin, Juliet F. MacCannell, Samuel Weber, and others (details to come).

With ample opportunity for study abroad, our more than 70 undergraduate majors pursue the B. A. with a focus in one of three areas: German Literature and Language; German Studies; Scandinavian. Language instruction covers not only German but also Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish. Our innovative graduate curriculum is designed to provide M.A. and Ph.D. students with a firm grounding in modern (post-1750) German literature and to enable them to locate this literature within the context of modern European history and thought.

The Pacific Coast, the Cascade Mountains, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland) and the Oregon Bach Festival (Eugene) are among the natural and cultural amenities that make the University of Oregon an agreeable setting in which to study the literatures and languages of the German-speaking and Nordic countries.