Best Graduate Programs in French Studies - Updated 2021

Regulations for the Combined PhD in French and Film and Media Studies. In years one and two the student should complete 16 courses. Eight of the seminars should be in French, one of which would be Introduction to Old French and seven of the seminars would be in Film and Media, including the two core curriculum courses required by Film and Media. Cross-listed seminars may count towards fulfillment of the requirements in both French and Film and Media, but would not reduce the total of 16 necessary for preparation for professional work in both disciplines.

In addition to the primary field in French and Francophone Studies, all of our PhD students create an individual course of study in a secondary field, which can be in a second Romance literature or in another discipline. Students may also choose to complete a dual degree program with Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS), or to Masters in Legal Studies (MLS) program. Each year, French Studies program offers full funding for a graduate student to conduct doctoral research in Paris, providing a formal year-long affiliation with the Collège de France and its research assets.

These include poststructuralist, psychoanalytic, cultural historical, postcolonial, feminist, visual arts, gender studies, and historical materialist perspectives, as well as film and media theories.

Students receive training and guidance in literary and cultural theory, critical methods, research and teaching applications of information technology, modern linguistics, narratology, hermeneutics and sociocultural and psychoanalytic interpretation. Focal areas of research include the historical interactions between French-speaking cultures, questions of gender and race, and relations between writing, cinema and philosophical thought. Writing Sample: Required (in French). Applications should be completed in English, except for the writing sample.

The Joint PhD program in French Studies and French Literature is designed for students interested in developing research expertise in the history and analysis of literary texts closely linked to their social, cultural, and political contexts. It prepares students to teach both literature and history or the social sciences in French departments, and gives them the scholarly expertise to integrate the two.

The specialization in French Studies is designed to prepare M.A. and Ph.D. specialists in literature and culture. M.A. students take an examination based on a reading list and are required to demonstrate, at the time of the master’s examination, an ability to communicate effectively in both written and oral French.

GRSProgramsRomance Studies PhD in French Language Literature. The program offers professional preparation through the acquisition of extensive knowledge of the field of study advanced skills in the use, evaluation, and production of critical scholarly and research materials experience communicating knowledge in a range of contexts and substantial training in pedagogy and other relevant practical and professional training. Candidates for admission should be able to demonstrate foundational knowledge of the appropriate literature and written and oral competence in the language of study. The PhD program is open to those with a BA or MA in an appropriate field.

This is a named option in the French Studies MFS. The Professional French Studies Summer Institute program teaches interdisciplinary skills needed to operate in professional French settings around the world—this is particularly important to teachers, who collaborate with each other in the program as they hone their connections to those cultures and practices. The Summer Studies Institute program is the Professional French Masters Program part-time pathway to the degree, for working French teachers.

Students at Tulane have unique opportunities for exploring the French, Creole and Cajun cultures of Louisiana. The university location affords us a privileged vantage point from which to observe other situations of localized or marginalized languages and cultures in their relationship to broader, often hegemonic forces: France’s regional languages in conflict with the official language revered as an inviolable symbol of national unity immigrant cultural practices in conflict with French cultural norms creole languages stigmatized as corrupt forms of the standard, etc.

To earn the M.A. in French and Francophone studies, a student is required to complete a minimum of 30 credits of coursework. The examination is normally administered during the first two weeks of December or the last two weeks of April. All students are required to take the examination no later than one semester after they have completed 30 credits of coursework. All students planning to take the oral examination must consult with their graduate advisor concerning the date of their examination.