• MA Degree Requirements
• PhD Degree Requirements
• Curriculum

Program Description

The PhD Program in French focuses on literary and cultural production from throughout the Francophone world and provides students with a strong theoretical background.  Historically dedicated to training students in the various periods, genres, and media of cultural production in French, the program is also distinguished by its pioneering commitment to a broadly inclusive conception of the field of French and Francophone literatures and cultures, as well as its sustained engagement with developments in literary theory, philosophy, and critical thought that have indelibly impacted humanities scholarship of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  These include poststructuralist, postmodern, psychoanalytic, historical, postcolonial, feminist, visual arts, gender studies, and historical materialist perspectives, as well as film and media theories. 

The research and teaching of our combined faculty exhibits particular strength in the areas of twentieth-century literature and contemporary theory; film and visual culture across periods; Francophone studies; seventeenth- and eighteenth-century studies; and gender studies.

The program is strongly committed to interdisciplinarity and allows students the flexibility to tailor their course of study so as to reach across traditional disciplinary and departmental boundaries.  Students benefit from a wide array of interdisciplinary resources, including Northwestern Library's outstanding Africana collection, and from close interaction with experts in related fields of gender studies, film, art history, philosophy, and comparative literature.

Applicants should contact the department or see the website www.frenchanditalian.northwestern.edu  to learn more about the program and its specific requirements for admission.

Faculty