The German program enjoys vigorous exchanges with several universities in Germany. Graduate students frequently spend the summer as well as their fourth-year dissertation leave at one of our partner institutions, where they participate in graduate colloquia and receive guidance from a faculty mentor.

The University of Hamburg is an outstanding university and one of only 11 universities in Germany to be designated as an Excellence University. The Department of Modern German Literature stands out for its innovative research in literature, cultural history, theater, and aesthetics. The University of Hamburg and Johns Hopkins have long hosted each other’s students for a semester or year.

The University of Bonn is an Excellence University with six additional excellence clusters. The university has a record of distinction in disciplinary and transdisciplinary research. The German program at Johns Hopkins maintains an active exchange with the graduate center Gegenwart/Literatur devoted to exploring the intersection of literature and contemporaneity. The university’s German and Comparative Literature programs are situated at the forefront of the field.

The Humboldt University Berlin is an extraordinarily vibrant intellectual center with distinction in numerous fields. The graduate school and PhD Network Das Wissen der Literatur has spearheaded inquiries into literature as a form of knowledge and into the paradigm shifts and epistemological transformations registered in aesthetics.

The Free University Berlin has consistently been ranked as one of Germany’s top universities over the past two decades. It is home to the Dahlem Humanities Center, which serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research in the human sciences. The university also hosts the Friedrich Schlegel School of Literary Studies, which is a graduate center committed to theoretical and conceptual exploration of literature across national boundaries.