Doctor of Philosophy in French/Francophone Studies

The PhD Program in French and Francophone Studies focuses on literary and cultural production throughout the French-speaking world and provides students with a strong theoretical background. Historically dedicated to training students in various periods, genres, and media of cultural production in French, the Program is also distinguished by its pioneering commitment to a broadly inclusive conception of the field of French and Francophone literatures and cultures, as well as its sustained engagements with developments in literary theory, philosophy, and critical thought that have indelibly impacted humanities scholarship of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Program aims to develop students metacritical perspectives through exposure to the range of theoretical and methodological approaches represented by our faculty. These include poststructuralist, psychoanalytic, cultural historical, postcolonial, feminist, visual arts, gender studies, and historical materialist perspectives, as well as film and media theories. The research and teaching of our combined faculty exhibits particular strength in the areas of twentieth-century literature and contemporary theory (Ty Blakeney, Christopher Bush, Matthieu Dupas, Scott Durham, Michal Ginsburg [Emerita], Nasrin Qader, Alessia Ricciardi, Domietta Torlasco, Sam Weber [Affiliated], Jane Winston [Emerita]), film and visual culture across periods (Ty Blakeney, Christopher Bush, Matthieu Dupas, Scott Durham, Bernadette Fort [Emerita], Michal Ginsburg [Emerita], Alessia Ricciardi, Domietta Torlasco, Jane Winston [Emerita]), Francophone Studies (Christopher Bush, Doris Garraway, Nasrin Qader, Jane Winston [Emerita]), seventeenth and eighteenth-century studies (Matthieu Dupas, Bernadette Fort [Emerita], Doris Garraway, Sylvie Romanowski [Emerita], nineteenth century-century studies (Ty Blakeney), Medieval and Early Modern (Christopher Davis, Matthieu Dupas, Cynthia Nazarian, Bill Paden [Emeritus], Sylvie Romanowski [Emerita], and gender studies (Ty Blakeney, Matthieu Dupas, Bernadette Fort [Emerita], Cynthia Nazarian, Bill Paden [Emeritus], Sylvie Romanowski [Emerita], Jane Winston [Emerita]).

Admitted students must hold a U.S. bachelor’s degree or a comparable non-U.S. degree from a regionally accredited institution.

For the TOEFL, an applicant must score 550 or higher on the paper-based test, 233 or higher on the computer-based test, or 90 or higher on the Internet-based test. For the IELTS, an applicant must score 7.0 or higher.