The electors intend to proceed to an election to the Professorship of French Literature with effect from as early a date as may be arranged.
A non-stipendiary fellowship at Lady Margaret Hall is attached to the professorship.
Further particulars of the post are appended, comprising a memorandum of guidance and a statement of the duties and general conditions of service.
The professor will not necessarily be chosen from among those who have applied.
Applications (ten copies, or one only from overseas candidates), naming three persons who have agreed to act as referees on this occasion (with postal and e-mail addresses and telephone/fax numbers), should be received not later than 3 December 2001 by the Registrar of the University. Testimonials should not be sent.
D.R. HOLMES
Registrar
University Offices
Wellington Square
Oxford OX1 2JD
1. Vacancy
Applications are invited for the Professorship of French Literature from suitably qualified candidates in any area of specialisation. The professorship is on the establishment of the Board of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and Literatures, and there has been only one previous holder, Professor I.D. McFarlane, who retired in 1983; in the interim the title was held on an ad hominem basis by Professor A.W. Raitt, who retired in 1997.
2. The Professorship
The professor should have an outstanding research record in any area or areas of specialisation in French literary studies, broadly conceived. It is expected that the professor will provide active support for the wide range of activities in the sub-faculty of French, and academic leadership.
The duties are to pursue original research in French Literature and to give in each academic year at least 36 lectures and classes, as indicated in the accompanying extract from the Statutes, Decrees, and Regulations. The holder will be expected to contribute broadly to undergraduate and graduate teaching, through lectures, seminars and graduate supervision, to examining in the French sub-faculty, and to faculty-wide administration.
3. The sub-faculty of French
The Modern Languages Faculty is divided into eight sub-faculties: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and other Slavonic languages, Spanish, Modern Greek, and Linguistics. The sub-faculty of French is the largest with over fifty members. In addition to this chair, there is the Marshal Foch Professorship of French Literature held by Professor M.M. Bowie FBA, an ad hominem Professorship of French Literature held by Professor T.C. Cave FBA (retiring 30 November 2001), and a fixed-term Professorship of French Studies held by Professor A. Viala, together with eight titular Professorships and two titular Readerships, eighteen Lecturerships, an Instructorship and a number of College Lectorships. The research of the sub-faculty is devoted principally to the historical and critical study of French language and literature from the early Middle Ages to the present day, and to a number of cognate subjects. Much of this work is conducted in a comparative and/or interdisciplinary perspective. Members of the sub-faculty have active research interests in historiography, bibliography, the editing of texts, literary theory, legal, medical, intellectual and theatre history, the visual arts including film, psychoanalysis, feminism, and francophone studies.
Significant concentrations of research exist in the medieval and early modern periods, seventeenth-century theatre, enlightenment studies and nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought, poetry and prose fiction. The sub-faculty, as well as ensuring that future appointments will maintain its wide-ranging traditional strengths, is hoping to make appointments in the near future in French cinema and francophone literature. The sub-faculty has recently had a major policy review; the document issuing from this is available on request.
4. Undergraduate courses
At the first degree level, students at Oxford may read French for the Honour School of Modern Languages either together with another language or by itself, or for one of the Joint Honour Schools involving Classics, English, Modern History, Philosophy, or a Middle Eastern language. The average annual intake to read French is 220. The course allows students either to study a broad, chronological range of literature or to focus their studies on the medieval, the early modern, or the modern period up to the present day. It also aims to teach spoken fluency in colloquial and more formal situations, the ability to write in the target language, and the ability to translate into and out of the target language with accuracy and sensitivity to a range of vocabulary, registers and styles.
5. Graduate Courses
Graduates reading French can study either for a research degree (D.Phil. or M.Litt.), or follow a taught Master's course in European Literature of one or two years duration (M.St. and M.Phil. respectively). There are also taught course in Women's Studies, Celtic Studies and Slavonic Studies. At any one time there are approximately 50 graduates in French on the registers.
6. Administrative structures
At Oxford, Arts subjects are not normally organised into departments and there are not in the conventional sense Heads of Department. The faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages is run by a faculty board composed of a number of elected members who in their turn elect a chairman. The current chairman is Dr C.J. Davis. The faculty is divided into sub-faculties, each of which meets once or twice termly. The Faculty Board meets twice termly. The professor is eligible to be elected a member of the faculty board. Many decisions involving French are delegated to the sub-faculty, of which Professor A.M. Finch is currently chair.
The University has recently engaged in a major administrative re-organisation, in the course of which the relationship between sub-faculty, faculty board and central University bodies has changed. All faculties are now grouped into larger divisions; the Faculty of Modern Languages forms part of the Humanities Division and the divisional board oversees the work of this faculty and of all others in the division.
7. Oxford facilities
Oxford facilities, which are important for teaching and research in French, are first of all the excellent libraries. The Taylor Institution Library has exceptional holdings for the study of European languages, ancient and modern, with particular strengths in the Enlightenment and Modern French, and is the largest dedicated Modern Languages library in the UK. The Bodleian Library is a copyright library (i.e. it receives all UK publications). It has incomparable MS and printed book collections. There is also a Modern Languages Faculty Library, which caters primarily for undergraduate needs, and various college libraries have important holdings. The Professor of French Literature may be expected to play a role in determining the acquisition policy of the University libraries.
The Oxford University Computing Service provides a wide range of IT services and is well known for its activities in Humanities computing; currently it includes a Centre for Humanities Computing, a Centre for Textual Studies and the Oxford Text Archive project. The Language Centre provides courses and self-tuition facilities for all members of the University, catering primarily for non-specialists, though the Instructorship in French is held jointly between the faculty and the Centre. The Maison Française is a joint enterprise between the universities of Oxford and Paris founded to encourage closer ties between Britain and France at university level. In addition to offering programmes of lectures, etc., and providing limited residential accommodation, it is a CNRS research centre for Humanities and Social Studies.
The Modern Languages Board has funds available to support research visits, conference attendance and organisation, provide publication subventions, and purchase IT equipment for individual members of the faculty.
The Taylor Institution is a fine neo-classical mid-nineteenth-century building in the centre of Oxford, housing (in addition to the libraries) a lecture Hall seating 230 and other lecture rooms accommodating between 25 and 100. There are several smaller seminar and meeting rooms in the annexes in Wellington Square, which also houses the Faculty Office. This provides basic office support to the faculty (photocopying, fax, etc) and secretarial support for the sub-faculties and examination boards.
The European Humanities Research Centre, at present funded by the Modern Languages Board and central university bodies, although multidisciplinary in nature, grew out of initiatives by members of the French sub-faculty. It aims to provide a facilitating framework for advanced research in the Humanities, furthered by a publications unit, conference and symposium programmes, and a scheme for visiting scholars.
The Voltaire Foundation, which is devoted to research and publication in the field of eighteenth-century studies, is fully integrated into the university: its director and principal officers are members of the French sub-faculty.
8. College Affiliation
The professorship will be associated with a professorial fellowship at Lady Margaret Hall, which carries with it membership of the Governing Body, entitlement to all college meals when the college is open and to other facilities. A range of rooms may be used for entertaining, meetings and seminars and all fellows have access to senior common room guest rooms. A working room will be provided in college.