German-Chinese Institute for Intercultural German Studies and Culture Comparison

The German-Chinese Institute for Intercultural German Studies and Culture Comparison was jointly founded in early 2005 by the Department of Intercultural German Studies in the Georg-August-University of Göttingen and the Institute for German Language, Literature and Culture Comparison of the University of Nanjing. The Institute is dedicated to comparative and intercultural issues concerning Germany – China in research, teaching and in practice, above all in the areas of linguistics, literary and cultural studies, together with methodology and didactics.

Currently the institute's largest project is the joint development of the Double Degree Masters Program Intercultural German Studies Germany – China. It has funding of 605,000 Euro within the framework of the EU-supported project INTERKULTUR Asia-Link (total funding 809,00 Euro).

The research focuses of the Institute are in the areas of comparative and intercultural scientific and business communication, intercultural methodology and didactics, contrastive linguistics, imagology, modernity discourses and hybridity, memory and literature in a transcultural perspective, and the reception of modern German literature in the Peoples' Republic of China (hereafter PRC).

As well as jointly implementing research projects in the areas described, the institutes in Goettingen and Nanjing jointly supervise students working towards a Double German-Chinese PhD. There is a lively exchange of teaching staff, with staff from both institutes spending 4-6 weeks of each year at the partner university, teaching in the areas of Intercultural German Studies and Culture Comparison. In addition, each location offers special courses on Intercultural German Studies Germany – China.