Choosing Classes
The German department at Wheaton College is rich in small, intense, and innovative classes. Our 1st and 2nd year courses (G101-2; 201-2) concentrate on the basics with an emphasis on communication and video. Film-making workshops, as preparation for making our own short videos in German, have become an exciting new part of the program. Our 3rd year courses (G240; 242) are transitional: focusing on composition and conversation and serving as in introduction to German Studies. Freshmen begin German at any of these entry levels.
Our upper-level courses in German Studies are flexible and adapted to the needs and desires of our majors. We stress literature, film, art, history, and politics in cultural context. Recently, we started offering Business German to better prepare our students who have applied for internships in Germany.
Our senior capstone experience has become the most exciting part of our program, in which students draw upon their JYA experiences to design their own research or alternative projects. We support documentary film (2001-2); playwrighting (2002-3); and in 2003-4, we anticipate supporting projects in women's studies, in high school pedagogy, and in the culture of science.
German is central to our new ≥connections≈ curriculum at Wheaton and to our intention to infuse global studies into that curriculum. Many of our classes in German connect naturally to courses in History and International Relations˘and we encourage students to come up with their own, even more creative connections.
Connections made so far are:
- Ger 267 Lulu, Lola and Leni: Women of German Cinema with Film and Society (Conx 23014)
- Ger 201 or Ger 202 Intermediate German with Hist 102 The Development of Modern Europe since 1789
- Ger 250 German Culture with Hist 240 German History: 1848 ñ Present
- Ger 262 Forbidden Knowledge with Hist 285 History of Science and the Scientific Revolution or Bio 211 Genetics