German Studies Graduate Program
Faculty and staff in the German Program are attentive to the complicated ways that social status, wealth, racialized difference, oppression, and privilege can play out in power dynamics in any learning environment, and we have undertaken initiatives and keep educating ourselves to address these problems at CU and in our own discipline.
Diversity is integral to our mission of training the next generation of scholars, teachers, and cultural leaders! We strive to accomplish this through an approach to language, literature, media, and culture that shows awareness of social and cultural differences and critically engages with the history of the German-speaking world that provides powerful examples for the devastating effects of racism, misogyny, violent persecution of minorities, and discrimination based on race, sex, disability, and religion.
Our graduate students are trained in inclusive pedagogy and can choose from a variety of classes that encourage thinking critically about marginality, and historical and contemporary inequities associated with race, ethnicity, nationality, class, sex, gender, and ability.
We actively strive to create an inclusive environment for our graduate students based on mutual respect, intellectual curiosity, and a shared belief in equity and justice. Faculty and staff in the German program work hard to provide all students with equal access to education, advising, financial and intellectual resources and to offer individualized support to accomplish each student’s professional goals. To foster equity and inclusivity in our graduate program, we strive for transparency and involve our graduate students in program related decisions; a graduate student representative participates in all program and department meetings and in our DEI steering committee.
We strongly believe that forging an inclusive education requires constant and active attention and action. We are currently in the process of working with a professional DEI consultant to assess departmental climate and help us develop an action plan to become a DEI leader in German Studies and on campus.
In conection with this statement, we want to express our support for the following initiatives:
Diversity, Decolonization and the German Curriculum
Black German Heritage and Research Organization
We stand behind the German Studies Association’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity as expressed in this statement.