Opening our Imaginations: A Dialogue on Graduate Education

Graduate education in the humanities struggles with weighty traditions, constrained (fiscal) resources, and a legacy of elitism and cultural homogeneity. As the makeup of graduate students becomes ever more diverse in terms of income, ethnicity, sexuality, citizenship, and disability, graduate programs are working through the challenges and opportunities non-traditional students bring to light. An openness to rethinking the mission of German Studies at Michigan State University (MSU) – a large Midwestern, land-grant institution – has made possible a series of specific changes, including the hybrid dissertation, faculty-student research collaboration, uniquely transdisciplinary approaches, and explicit preparation for non-academic career pathways. In this conversation, a professor and a doctoral student in the German Studies program at MSU reflect on these reforms in their program, and embed them within a broader framework of questions facing graduate education more generally: (1) the changing face of the discipline of German Studies, and indeed of German culture as an object of our study, (2) issues raised by the phenomenon of globalization and the emergence of Global Studies as an area of critical inquiry, and (3) the changing needs, knowledges, and aspirations of students today. We close with a call to embrace the promise of change.