GRADUATE STUDIES IN FRENCHnat THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
We are now accepting applications for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Interdisciplinary, global, transhistoric, and transdisciplinary thinking define our department: Our community includes 15 teaching faculty, of which 8 offer graduate seminars, and around 17 funded graduate students. Collectively we reflect a diversity of voices. We offer a diversity of voices with courses spanning geographically and historically from the Francophone Global South to French-speaking Europe, from Medieval through Contemporary France. Department members participate in the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures; the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities; Caribbean Studies; Medieval Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and European Studies. We also work across several departments of the College of Art and Sciences as well as with institutions
abroad, in particular the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, l’École Normale Supérieure (Ulm), the Université de Lyon 2 and the Université Paris-Est Créteil.
Graduate research reflects our intellectual reach: Current and recent topics of graduate research include perceptions of assimilation in early Francophone literature; urbanism and affect in contemporary French literature; Francophone sub-Saharan African filmmaking; ecofeminism; environmental humanities; humanities in the time of climate crisis; the play between religiosity and secularism in late Medieval literature; Mediterranean studies; French and Amazigh literature and culture; colonial trauma in Algeria; the XVIIIth century libertine novel; dystopic fictions; performance, theater, and medieval manuscripts; intersections between Haitian painting and literature.
Degrees: We offer both Ph.D. and separate M.A. programs, including a pedagogy M.A. program. Our students can also pursue complementary certificates in Premodern Cultures and Communities, Digital Humanities, Environmental Humanities and Gender & Sexuality Studies. We admit students with a B.A. or an M.A. in French.
Funding: Ph.D. candidates receive 6 years of guaranteed funding, which encompasses 2 years of full fellowship support and 4 years of graduate teaching assistantships (GTAs). This funding package covers tuition, fees, and comprehensive health insurance, in addition to an annual stipend starting at $36,000. Students in the pedagogy M.A. program may receive a tuition and fee waiver, as well as a teaching stipend, during their second year. Students in the regular M.A. program are responsible for covering their own expenses.
Additional funding: Our program offers yearly grants to cover research and travel expenses (to national or international conferences) and multiple competitive fellowships are available through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences For further details, see: https://french.as.virginia.edu/funding.
The University of Virginia and the Charlottesville area: As America’s first public university, founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia is regularly ranked among the most prestigious institutions in the U.S. Known for the beauty of its campus, recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site, UVa is located in one of America’s best college towns. The Charlottesville area is renowned for its vibrant music and arts scene, superb local restaurants, breweries, and wineries, and for its easy accessibility to the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park.
Applications to the Ph.D. program must be submitted by December 15th, 2025; applications to the stand-alone M.A. program must be received by January 15th, 2026. Please see http://french.as.virginia.edu/prospective-applicants and http://graduate.as.virginia.edu/ for application forms and full instructions. An application fee waiver is available for applicants from Minority Serving Institutions or who meet other criteria (https://gradoutreach.virginia.edu/application-fee-waiver). For further information, feel free to contact Prof. Claire Lyu, Director of Graduate Studies, at FrenchDGS@virginia.edu.