Study Abroad
Dortmund
For a number of years, UVa's German Department and the University of Dortmund's American Studies Department have enjoyed a successful and productive exchange program. One advanced student from each department is selected to participate each year. The graduate student selected by UVa to go to Dortmund teaches two seminars in German and American literature, in addition to other duties. Since these seminars are crosslisted, being offered under both the German and the American Studies Departments, there is frequently a strong interdisciplinary aspect. The subject matter is chosen by the graduate student and approved by Professor Walter Grünzweig of the University of Dormund's Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik. The student chosen by the University of Dortmund to come to Charlottesville lives in and is a supervisor of the Max Kade German House. In addition, the student serves as an instructor for intermediate grammar and conversation courses at UVa.Bonn
We also have recently established an exchange program with the University of Bonn, which was founded on October 18, 1818 by King Friedrich Wilhelm III (incidentally just a year after the foundation of the University of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson). The newly-founded University of Bonn arose in the spirit of Prussian cultural politics influenced by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Idealism and enlightenment characterized this epoch, in which universities in Berlin (1809) and Breslau (1811) also came into being. Due to the liberal spirit of the time, the alma mater on the Rhine soon flourished, and its reputation attracted such eminent scholars as August Wilhelm Schlegel, Ernst Moritz Arndt, Barthold Georg Niebuhr, Friedrich August Kekule, Johannes Müller, Friedrich Argelander and Heinrich Hertz. Today, the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn is among the largest universities in Germany. It ranks as the third largest in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia with around 38,000 students. Approximately 2,400 foreign students from more than 100 countries and a large number of foreign visiting instructors, including roughly 100 Humboldt Research Fellows annually, lend an international dimension to teaching and research. The Seminar für deutsche Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaften der Universität Bonn has always enjoyed an excellent reputation in both German and abroad. This reputation was first established and later continued by scholars like Benno von Wiese, Richard Alewyn, Beda Allemann, Peter Pütz and others. The graduate exchange program is limited to one student per academic year. While the UVa graduate students works as a Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft assigned to a faculty member in Bonn, the student from Bonn is offered a TA-position in the UVa German Department. Thus the exchange provides them with opportunities and job experiences they would not be able to make otherwise. It is the intention of both departments to maintain, intensify and expand our contacts.Mannheim
Starting with the 2003-04 academic year, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at UVa established an exchange program with the Abteilung für Neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft at the University of Mannheim. Typically, students spend an academic year in Mannheim, where they are also employed as a research assistant or Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft. One advantage of studying in Mannheim is the reciprocity agreement between Mannheim and Heidelberg, enabling students to take courses offered at both universities and giving access to two superb libraries at once.