Curriculum

The IPP offers a clearly structured and research-oriented three-year doctoral programme in literary and cultural studies with a strong international focus. Its curriculum is tailored to suit the needs of postgraduate students and facilitates the completion of the doctoral degree within three years, while at the same time ensuring the academic quality of the PhD.


An integral part of the IPP curriculum is the doctoral colloquium. Every three weeks, each year-group meets for three presentations, and discussions, of work in progress. Each member of the IPP presents once a semester and receives feedback from the professors, the IPP coordinator, and, of course, her/his fellow members (each presentation and discussion is allocated one hour in sum).

In addition to the colloquia, which are held from the first to the sixth semester, the IPP and its partner institutes offer a number of courses within four modules: Literary and Cultural Theory, Models, Methodology and Terminology; Genre Theory; Literary and Cultural Historiography; Comparative and Interdisciplinary Issues. The overall aim of these courses is to equip the IPP memebrs with sound knowledge on the state of the art in the ever-expanding fields of literary and cultural studies, thereby to optimize the quality of their doctoral dissertations.

The table below provides a semester-by-semester plan of the activities that members will be involved in during their time of study at the IPP. More information on the requirements of each course is given in the Glossary and the IPP/GCSC Study Calendar lists the different courses offered each semester.

Semester	Course	Type of         course	Aim
1 - 6
	IPP Colloquium	Obligatory	To ensure steady progress towards the completion of the dissertation
	One workshop and/or master class	Obligatory	To work on specific topics in literary and cultural studies and to exchange ideas with distinguished scholars
	Section meeting (one of the GGK Sections)	Obligatory	To read and discuss seminal texts in literary and cultural studies; to organize workshops or conferences
	GCSC Teaching Centre workshops	Voluntary	To gain teaching skills
	GCSC Career Service workshops	Voluntary	To gain professional qualifications
1
	Core course (basic module)	Obligatory	To determine the focus of the dissertation
	Core course (subject-related module)	Obligatory	To identify a methodological and theoretical framework
3
	Intermediate course	Obligatory	To deal with compositional issues and to discuss specific questions concerning the dissertation
	One international summer school (see Multilateral Cooperations)	Voluntary	To present research projects/academic papers in an excellent, international context
5 / 6
	The PhD Defence Course	Voluntary (5) Obligatory(6)	To assist the students in getting prepared for the doctoral viva