Reflecting the strong interdisciplinary ethos of the University of Chicago, members of the faculty in the Department of Germanic Studies often have joint (or even multiple) appointments in the Humanities, as indicated.
In addition, our affiliated faculty (see below) extends the department's intellectual and disciplinary reach, featuring scholars in Art History, Cinema and Media Studies, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology, among others. The department's course offerings reflect the faculty's broad-ranging interests.
Core Faculty and Staff -- Visiting Faculty -- Resource Faculty -- Emeriti Faculty
Emeriti Faculty
Reinhold Heller, Professor, joint appointment with Art History (MA, PhD Indiana University), has been at Chicago since 1978. His research interests include German Expressionism, the Weimar avant-garde, and the history of modern German art. His most recent book is Stark Impressions: Prints in Germany (Northwestern UP, 1994).
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-mail: rheller@uchicago.edu
Samuel Jaffe, Professor (BA, MA, PhD University of Chicago), has been involved with the Department longer than any other current faculty member. His teaching and research interests range from the Middle Ages to Moses Mendelssohn, Freud, and Nietzsche. He participates both in the Committee in Medieval Studies and Committee on Jewish Studies.
Peter K. Jansen (1934 - 2007), published articles on Heinrich von Kleist, Georg Buchner, Johann Nepomuk Nestroy and Viennese popular theatre, Bertolt Brecht, and reviewed books on many authors and subjects in German literature from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Along with Kenneth Northcott, he translated three plays by the late Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard which were published under the the collective title of Histrionics.
Hildegund Ratcliffe, Senior Lecturer (PhD Innsbruck), is coordiantor of the language program. In addition to organizing language instruction at the first-, second-, and third-year levels, she offers a course in pedagogical theory and methods and also teaches language courses. She is also responsible for the academic aspects of the newly created Spring Quarter program in Weimar (for undergraduates) and conducts German language proficiency tests for students at the University of Chicago.