The Master of Arts degree requirements in Germanics are intended to give students a broad overview of the field of German Studies, including literary history, intellectual history, cultural studies, and linguistics/philology.  Master’s Degree requirements can be completed in one year, but students who are teaching assistants normally complete the degree early in the fifth quarter of studies.  Holders of teaching assistantships must fulfill the Graduate School and departmental requirements for assistantships.

ADMISSIONS

Applicants to the MA program in Germanics should have fulfilled requirements equivalent to those for the Bachelor of Arts degree in Germanics at the University of Washington.  These requirements include advanced proficiency in the German language and knowledge of the modern periods of German literature and civilization. An applicant who does not fully meet these requirements or their equivalent may be admitted at the discretion of the department, provided the applicant agrees to attain competency in these areas by completing preparatory class work before commencing the graduate program.

Applicants who are not admitted to the department may improve their preparation by taking courses in the department through the Extension Program on a non-matriculated basis.  Application for non-matriculated graduate status is made to the Graduate School on a form available from the department.

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ADVISING

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GRADUATE SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS

Students who intend to work toward advanced degrees must meet the requirements of the Graduate School as outlined in the University of Washington Catalog:

            1. The master’s candidate must present a minimum of three quarters of course work earned in residence at the University of Washington (part‑time quarters may be accumulated to meet this requirement).

            2. Although the normal course load carried by graduate students is ten to twelve credits per quarter, a load of not less than ten credits per quarter is considered full‑time.

            3. Graduate students are required to be continuously enrolled in the Graduate School.  Students who will be out of town must petition for on‑leave status.

            4. During the first two weeks of the quarter in which the exams will be completed, the student must apply for the MA degree with the Graduate School. Degree applications are completed on-line. No application will be accepted after the first two weeks of the quarter.  Every student, whether in absentia or in residence, must be registered for a minimum of two credits for the quarter in which the degree requirements are to be completed.

            5. All work for the MA degree must be completed within six years, including work transferred from other institutions.

            6. The Graduate School foreign language requirement is automatically fulfilled by the completion of the Master’s Degree in Germanics.

            7. Graduate Students are required to maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.

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DEPARTMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

Candidates for the MA degree must complete 40 hours of course work, submit one critical MA paper, complete a text analysis in one of the MA areas of expertise, and pass a written comprehensive examination in one of the MA areas.

The areas of expertise for the MA in Germanics are:

            1) Literary History

            2) Intellectual History

            3) Cultural Studies

            4) Linguistics/Philology

Students must demonstrate foundational competency in three of these four areas of expertise. Evaluation of this expertise will be based on three evaluation procedures: one comprehensive examination (based on the MA reading list); one text analysis (text selected by the MA committee from the MA reading list); one critical MA paper (based on work in a graduate seminar). Students will choose the way these three evaluation procedures shall be distributed across their three selected areas of expertise.

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COURSE WORK

1. Except for German 411, 451, 452, 497, 498 and 499, all other courses taken to fulfill the 40-credit requirement must be at the 500-level and include:

a.German 518/576, Methods and Materials in Teaching German (required for teaching             assistants).

b.German 500, Introduction to Theory, Methodology, Bibliography

c.At least one course in three of the following four areas of the curriculum: literary history, intellectual history, cultural studies, linguistics/philology.  The department offers at least one, usually two courses, in each of these areas every year.

2. Graduate student enrollment in German 411, 451, 452 is normally restricted to MA students. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the Graduate Coordinator.

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CRITICAL MA PAPER

1. The critical MA paper should be based on an essay written for a graduate seminar. The final paper should be approximately 20-25 pp. in length, include a critical apparatus, and demonstrate the ability to present focused and sustained argumentation on a specific topic or problem.

2. The MA paper should normally be developed in conjunction with the faculty mentor in the Germanics Department for whom the initial seminar paper was written. The faculty member must note written acceptance of the essay as fulfilling the criteria for the critical MA paper. The faculty member’s written evaluation must be submitted with the paper and will become part of the student’s departmental record.

3. The critical MA paper should be keyed to one of the four areas of expertise listed above. If accepted by the faculty mentor, it will satisfy the requirement for that area of competence.

4. The accepted critical MA paper, along with the written evaluation by the student’s faculty mentor, must be submitted to the Graduate Coordinator in the first week of the quarter in which the student plans to complete work on the MA, usually in winter or summer quarter, when the text analysis and the comprehensive examination will be administered. The MA paper will be evaluated by the MA committee as part of their overall assessment of the candidate’s work.

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TEXT ANALYSIS

1. Students will be presented with a text or passage from a text, drawn from the MA reading list of the area they choose to have evaluated in this manner. The specific choice of texts will be left to the discretion of the MA committee.

2. The text analysis will be administered annually (along with the comprehensive examination) during the second week of winter quarter (Martin Luther King weekend). Students wishing to take it after three quarters in the program may request from the Graduate Coordinator a summer administration of the text analysis.  Students should inform the Graduate Coordinator of their intention to take the MA exam during the quarter preceding the one in which the exam will be taken. Students will have a total time of six hours to complete both the text analysis and the comprehensive examination. The allocation of the six-hour timeframe to these two separate tasks is at the discretion of the student, with the expectation of a two-hour minimum for any one of these essays.

3. Criteria of evaluation for the text analysis will be both depth of textual understanding and the ability to locate the work/passage in a wider historical or intertextual framework. The text analysis will be evaluated by the MA committee as part of their overall assessment of the candidate’s work.

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COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION

1. The MA comprehensive examination is based on one of the MA reading lists, chosen by the student. Students will be given two questions in their chosen area, and will select and write on one of these. Students will have a total time of six hours to complete both the comprehensive examination and the text analysis. The allocation of the six-hour timeframe to these two separate tasks is at the discretion of the student, with the expectation of a two-hour minimum for any one of these essays.

2. The MA comprehensive exam is given annually (along with the text analysis) during the second week of the winter quarter (Martin Luther King weekend).  Students wishing to take it after three quarters in the program may request from the Graduate Coordinator a summer administration of the exam.  Students should inform the Graduate Coordinator of their intention to take the MA exam during the quarter preceding the one in which the exam will be taken.

3. The MA comprehensive examination tests the students’ broad knowledge within their chosen area of expertise. The comprehensive examination will be evaluated by the MA committee as part of their overall assessment of the candidate’s work.

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EVALUATION

1. The Graduate Coordinator will appoint an ad hoc MA committee. It shall consist of no more than four faculty members, representing each of the four areas of expertise. The MA committee is charged with the following duties:

a. The MA committee shall meet before administration of the text analysis and comprehensive examination to agree on text selections and to discuss questions for the comprehensives.

b. All members of the committee shall read and evaluate the critical MA papers, the text analyses, and the comprehensive examinations of all candidates in their entirety. The committee determines collectively whether students pass or fail the text analysis and the comprehensive examination. Acceptance of the critical MA paper by the faculty mentor certifies that the student has passed that segment of the overall MA requirements, but assignment of a grade for the critical paper (independent of the grade the student received for the initial seminar paper expanded into the critical MA) paper shall be the task of the MA committee.

c. The committee shall meet to discuss the results after all materials have been evaluated and before results are released to students. The committee as a whole is responsible for assigning grades (high pass; good pass; pass; low pass; fail) to each section of the exam. The committee shall submit a brief written evaluation for each student, detailing the strengths or weaknesses in each area of expertise. The chair of the MA committee shall return all materials to the main office and report the results to the Chair and the Graduate Coordinator.  The department Chair shall report the results to the candidates.

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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

a. Candidates are responsible for the material in the current MA reading lists in those areas of expertise that are evaluated by the methods of text analysis and the comprehensive examination.

b. Copies of previous MA comprehensive exams and text analysis passages/texts may be consulted in the department office.

c. If a student fails to pass in any of their chosen areas of expertise or competence, she/he will be permitted to take the failed section(s) one more time at a subsequent administration of the exam.  Different exam questions or text passages will be given for the re-examination.

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