News

We are pleased to announce that the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at the University of Victoria is now accepting applications to the interdisciplinary MA stream in Holocaust Studies as part of our Germanic and Slavic Studies graduate program.

Interlinking scholarship with community-based field research—in effect drawing on the strengths of both academic research and experiential learning—our graduate stream provides individual learners with key competencies designed to prepare them for a career in education, public history, museum and archival work, education, journalism, public advocacy, and law. Our program also provides students with a solid interdisciplinary foundation for further PhD studies.

We are the only dedicated graduate program in Holocaust studies in Canada. Students benefit from seminar-sized classes; a range of opportunities to study abroad at one of our partner universities in Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), or Wrocław (Poland); experiential learning opportunities including the I-witness Field School on Holocaust memorialization in Europe, and practicum placements at Holocaust museums or memorial sites.

It is expected that each student accepted into the program will be funded. 

Language Requirements

Students are required to demonstrate their reading competency in one research-appropriate language (other than English) prior to entering the program. Depending on the nature of the proposed research project, students may be expected to reach higher proficiency levels in a research-appropriate language (other than English).

Admission

Admission to the M.A. Stream in Holocaust Studies is subject to the admission requirements of the UVic Faculty of Graduate Studies: https://www.uvic.ca/graduatestudies/admissions/admissions/index.php.

Thinking about applying?

Please feel free to join us for one of our three zoom information sessions:

Session 1: Monday, October 26, 2026, 10:00 am–11:00 am (PST)
Session 2: Wednesday, November 25, 2026, 12:00 pm–1:00 pm (PCT)

Session 3: Tuesday, December 8, 2026, 3:00 pm–4:00 pm (PCT)

Contact Dr. Helga Thorson to register for one of these sessions.

Applications are due on January 15^th, 2027. 

Please also visit our website for more information: https://www.uvic.ca/humanities/germanicslavic/graduate/Holocaust/index.php.

The Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies is hosting a series of lectures to celebrate the Diefenbaker Memorial Chair of German Literary Studies, an endowed research and public engagement professorship at the University of Waterloo. Leading scholars will be demonstrating the breadth and range of German studies today.

Three lectures will be taking place in March and April:

• Thursday, March 5, 2026 - Priscilla Layne (University of North Caroline at Chapel HIll): Swiss Postcolonial Literature? Reading Martin Dean's Meine Väter (2003) Through Trauma, Mutism, and Third Space
• Thursday, March 26, 2026 - Hannah Eldridge (University of Wisconsin-Madison): The (Germanophone) Poem and the (Connected) World
• Monday, April 6, 2026 - Anjeana Hans (Wellesley College): From Vienna to Hollywood: Independent Films, Exile, and the Shaping of Hollywood Genre

This series is being held in conjunction with the Waterloo Centre for German Studies. For more information on the lectures, please visit The Diefenbaker Lectures website.

Zoom information session for the 2026 I-witness Field School on Holocaust memorialization on Thursday, October 9th, at 10:00am. 

For this seminar, we propose investigating how contemporary German culture reflects and responds to current discourses on democracy at a time when democratic systems across the globe are under pressure, debate is increasingly polarized and the necessary exchange between civil society and the political system is deteriorating. 

Join us in congratulating the 2025 winners of the Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Research Award!

The 52nd Annual Ontario High School German Contest took place at McMaster University on April 13th, 2025. 

Announcement of the 2023 Book Prize Winnner - Andrea Rottmann

Announcement of the 2023 WCGS Book Prize Shortlist.

If you missed our event "The Changing German Political Landscape" or just want to revisit the discussion, the recording is now available!

The School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at the University of Victoria is now accepting applications to the interdisciplinary MA stream in Holocaust Studies as part of their Germanic and Slavic Studies graduate program.