News & Events

The Department

The German Department at UC Davis offers comprehensive and challenging programs in German language, literature, culture, and thought that span all periods from the Middle Ages to the present. Its distinguished faculty members conduct research in areas as diverse as literary history, gender studies, critical theory, film studies, intellectual history, medieval studies, theater studies, and linguistics, including second-language acquisition.

On the undergraduate level, the Department sponsors one of the most robust German programs on the West Coast, offering a rich selection of courses in German and English as well as extensive study-abroad opportunities. On the graduate level, the Department provides its students with a solid basis of erudition while encouraging innovative and multidisciplinary pursuits. A number of exciting new faculty appointments over the past few years have further enhanced the Department's research and teaching strengths. Each year, the Department also hosts a Max Kade Distinguished Visiting Professor from one of the German-speaking countries. The Department recently was ranked 5th in the nation by the Chronicle of Higher Education with respect to faculty research productivity.

The Setting

UC Davis, part of the world-renowned University of California system, is one of the nation's top public research universities. UC Davis enrolls more than 30,000 students and has an internationally recognized faculty. Among all public universities nationwide, it is ranked 11th (U. S. News & World Report 2010) in overall quality. It also has been elected a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, to which only 60 leading research institutions belong from among more than 3,000 public and private colleges and universities in the United States. UC Davis offers 103 undergraduate majors and 80 graduate programs, more than any other UC branch, providing extraordinary breadth and quality in study and research. Its library contains 3.29 million volumes and its 5,300 acre campus is the largest in the UC system. Set in the heart of California's beautiful Central Valley, the campus is about ten minutes by car from the state capital (Sacramento) and about an hour by car or train from the San Francisco Bay Area with its world-class museums, opera, theater, restaurants, bookstores, etc. Napa Valley, redwood forests, Lake Tahoe, and the Sierra Nevada mountains all lie within easy driving distance of Davis.