MA and MA/PhD Programs in French and Francophone Studies at The Pennsylvania State University (Fall 2027 admission)

The Department of French and Francophone Studies at The Pennsylvania State University is currently recruiting outstanding candidates for advanced study leading to the M.A. and M.A./Ph.D. degrees, for a Fall 2027 admission. We provide all of our full-time students with generous financial support including full tuition grants, teaching assistantships, and individual health coverage, and 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, 2027. 

Penn State’s French and Francophone Studies graduate program is unique for its 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. In addition to its interdisciplinarity, our curriculum is global and transhistorical. We also 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, material culture and aesthetics, cultural theory, popular and media culture. Faculty and students also work on geographical regions beyond hexagonal France, such as 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 pursuits. 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, 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. In addition, the Department offers the opportunity to participate in a year-long exchange program with the Université de Strasbourg. Finally, students in French and Francophone Studies 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 Consortium for Early Modern and Medieval 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. 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 Burleigh Hendrickson, Director of Graduate Studies, Marian Trygve Freed Early Career Professor and Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at bxh5451@psu.edu.

Prospective students are also invited to join us for an information session to be held via Zoom on November 13, 2026, from 9.30 am to 10.30am EST. In order to participate in the information session, you will need to register with your name and email address here. This session will be an opportunity to meet with members of the graduate faculty and fellow graduate students, and to ask questions about the program. For further information, please contact Burleigh Hendrickson at bxh5451@psu.edu.

Note that GRE scores are not required for admission in the program. To apply, please click here. We look forward to hearing from you!