The Department of French and Francophone Studies at The Pennsylvania State University is recruiting candidates for advanced study leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. We provide all of our full-time students with generous financial support and full tuition grants. We welcome applicants from historically underrepresented groups, for whom additional internal fellowships are often available. We also encourage international students and students from non-traditional backgrounds to apply. The deadline for submission of applications is January 15, 2023.
Penn State’s French and Francophone Studies graduate program is unique for its two long-established Ph.D. specializations in Literature and Culture and Society and an interdisciplinary orientation that fosters innovative approaches to a broad variety of objects of study. We offer three distinctive dual degrees. The first grants students a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (a top-ranked department nationally). The second grants a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies and African Studies. The third grants a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies and Visual Studies.
Faculty expertise spans women’s, gender and sexuality studies, (post-)colonial history and Francophone studies, linguistics, early modern studies, theater and film studies, material culture and aesthetics, cultural theory, and popular and media culture. Faculty and students work on areas beyond hexagonal France, like the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, North and West Africa.
As a community, our department embraces and supports its students and faculty. Our graduate students play a crucial role by bringing their diverse backgrounds and experiences to our intellectual debates. We aspire to include everyone in our individual and collective engagement with shaping the production and sharing of knowledge about and throughout the francophone world.
Our students receive extensive pedagogical training and teach courses in language, literature, culture, history, and linguistics at all undergraduate levels. Grants to support our students’ conference travels and dissertation research are available through a variety of internal sources, including Penn State’s Humanities Institute and Center for Humanities and Information. In addition, the Department offers the opportunity to participate in a year-long exchange program with the Université de Strasbourg. Finally, students in FFS benefit from numerous initiatives, academic programs, and centers within Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, including the Africana Research Center, the African Feminist Initiative, the Rock Ethics Institute, the Committee for Early Modern Studies, the Center for Global Studies, and the Center for Democratic Deliberation. All senior PhD students benefit from a Humanities Dissertation Release, during which they receive full funding to carry out research or writing. To know more about the recent placements of our former graduate students, please click here.
For further information on the Department of French and Francophone Studies, its graduate program, and the application procedure, please visit our website at http://www.french.psu.edu/ or contact Dr. Jennifer Boittin, Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of French, Francophone Studies, and History and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at jboittin@psu.edu. Note that GRE scores are not required for admission. To apply, please click here. If you have any questions about the technical aspects of the application process, please contact Heather Rutten at hxr87@psu.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!