Dear Prospective Fellow Graduate Student, Dear Future Colleagues, On behalf of our department, the graduate students would like to thank you for considering the UC Berkeley Department of German. Our purpose in writing is a bit self-serving. We're hoping to attract intellectually engaged, energetic and curious colleagues- the same qualities that characterize our department and our university. We're writing to offer you a few insights into the department, the university and Berkeley. The Berkeley German Department is a locus for the interdisciplinary ethos that distinguishes the university. With multiple professors teaching and serving in departments outside German, ranging from education and rhetoric to women's studies and medieval studies, our faculty encourage students to challenge disciplinary boundaries not only within the department but throughout the university. Housing some of the best humanities and social science departments in the nation, UC Berkeley offers unparalleled opportunities to work with faculty in history, philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, film, English, art history, rhetoric, and comparative literature, to name a few. Our students combine a solid German Studies background with a theoretical awareness that encompasses numerous disciplines. In addition to the strong sequence of film courses in place for some time now, the department has also instituted a four-semester intellectual history sequence that draws a wide range of students from across the university. Departmental courses are also regularly cross-listed with comparative literature, education, medieval studies, film studies, religious studies and women's studies. This year marks the eleventh anniversary of our annual interdisciplinary German Studies conference. Every year graduate students organize a two-day meeting of graduate students and faculty from around the world. The conference is organized around a central theme or problem that reflects the intellectual interests of our students. Past conferences have included themes ranging from cultural studies-oriented topics like "The German Soldier" and "Berlin Cityscape" to more recent and theoretically motivated conferences on "Finite Subjects: Mortality and Culture in Germany" to "Speaking Between: Language and Intersubjectivity." Graduate students run the entire conference from selecting the topic to responding to panels. In many ways, the conference reflects the collective and self-motivated character of our graduate program. As graduate students at Berkeley, we encounter a bewildering array of opportunities for furthering our professional development. The Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Institute for European Studies offer scholarship and research monies, support dozens of campus working groups and sponsor numerous conferences and talks. In addition, our own department runs the Bonwit Heine Lecture Series and the Noon Colloquium Talks. The Colloquium provides a venue for German faculty and students to share their work in progress. Former graduate students founded an international working group on German Modernism with universities in Tübingen and Vienna. This working group, known here as BTW, holds an annual conference as well. German graduate students also founded the Gender in German Studies (GiGs) working group funded by the Townsend Center for Humanities. Our graduate students also founded the Gender Caucus, which, among other things, is responsible for organizing a yearly undergraduate gender perspectives course. Another ongoing departmental activity is the German Multiculturalism Sourcbook Project led by Professors Deniz Gökturk and Anton Kaes. In conjunction with faculty guidance, a team of graduate and undergraduate students have transformed this future publication into a research project that includes a website, seminars and international conferences. In addition to these more institutional avenues for graduate development, we would also like to mention the never boring and resolutely diverse Berkeley undergrads who make teaching one of the most rewarding graduate student experiences, as we prepare for the profession. Beyond the graduate student conference are a number of linguistic conferences and events held every year. The "Berkeley Germanics Roundtable" is held alternately at UCLA and UC Berkeley and invites papers from a variety of German linguists. The "Semiotic Circle" also meets for a yearly conference on campus. The Department also hosts the "Bay Area German Field Research Project" or "BAG"—an ongoing working group of department linguists collecting data from around the Bay on topics such as bilingualism and inter-cultural communication. We should also mention the high level of involvement that the graduate students are privileged to in our department. At least two graduates students attend every faculty meeting, while most departmental committees have graduate student representatives. We have a decisive voice in both the present and future of the department. Berkeley might well be the most suitable place to practice your studies as a way of life. From the semiotic overload that is Telegraph Avenue, with its ever-present band of punks chatting with elderly hippies selling bumper stickers, to some of the world's greatest used and new bookstores, Berkeley is an energetic blend of cultures and peoples. Other than the wonderful restaurants, cafes and video stores, Berkeley offers hikes overlooking the Bay and easy access (three hours from campus) to the slopes of the Sierras and the camping grounds of Yosemite. If none of this interests you, you've always got San Francisco just across the Bay or one of the world-renowned collections of our library to keep you busy. Best, Department of German Graduate Students

A further note:

If you wish to apply to our top-ranked doctoral program and join our energetic group of graduate students, please consult the Graduate Division's website for details. Although a departmental admission committee evaluates your application, it is the Graduate Division that officially admits you to the Ph.D. program in German.

If you have a question about the program, please feel free to contact Professor Winfried Kudszus (Graduate Adviser in the Literature and Culture Specialization) or Professor Irmengard Rauch (Graduate Adviser in the Germanic Linguistics Specialization). Our Graduate Assistant, Elisabeth Lamoureaux, will be glad to answer all queries pertaining to non-academic matters.