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Graduate Program in French


The French Ph.D Program at Emory provides an interdisciplinary and theoretically sophisticated approach to understanding how French and Francophone texts continue to make highly relevant and enduring contributions to many of the questions that are central to intellectual life and the culture of the future.

Our doctoral program in French is an interdisciplinary curriculum that trains teachers and scholars to

  • engage in conversations across disciplinary boundaries;
  • understand the nature of French and Francophone literatures and the theory that informs and shapes our understanding of these literatures;
  • become acquainted with critical traditions that have in recent decades oriented literary critical studies;
  • gain proficiency in the theory and practice of language pedagogy

Intellectual Community

Graduate students at Emory take part in a thriving intellectual community focused around literature, critical theory and cultural studies with dynamic  lecture and film series as well as seminars across campus. These include those organized by the Disability Studies Initiative, the Institute of African Studies, the Psychoanalytic Studies Program, the Anthropocene Reading Group, the Global and Postcolonial Studies Program, along with several other faculty and student led conferences and programming.

The department also regularly brings distinguished scholars and authors to campus for seminars and lectures. One of these speakers each year is selected by the graduate students. Recent visitors include:

Ken Bugul, Patrick Chamoiseau, Michel Chion, Monique David-Ménard, Claire Denis, Fabienne Kanor, Alain Mabanckou, Raoul Peck, Pascal Quignard, Jean- Michel Rabaté, Jacques Rancière, Joël Des Rosiers, Kim Thúy, and Robert J. C. Young.

Professional Activities and Placement

Graduate students are encouraged to participate fully in their future profession by publishing papers and presenting them at professional meetings. Generous funds are available to students for conference travel, archival research, fieldwork, and training. Travel support is available for students who present papers at professional meetings.

Additionally, all Ph.D. students participate in the Laney Graduate School’s “Jones Program in Ethics” (JPE), which involves workshops and special sessions addressing issues of professional ethics.

We have had an excellent placement record, with graduates obtaining tenure track positions at such institutions as American University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University, the University of Arizona, UCLA, Grinnell College, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Minnesota, UNC-Chapel Hill, Princeton University, the University of Tulsa, Georgia Tech, the University of the South, Vanderbilt University, and Winthrop University.

Training in Teaching

Our graduate program provides a rich language-teaching experience in both training and praxis. Graduate students serve as instructors of record and work collaboratively with colleagues and supervisors to create and administer their own courses. In addition to the Teaching Assistant Training and Teaching Opportunity (TATTO) program offered by Laney Graduate School, students take FREN 505 “Problems in Foreign Language Teaching” in their second year, which offers a state-of-the-art snapshot of the field of language teaching methodologies.

Our graduate students are guaranteed to teach in several different levels of French, with the possibility of teaching a 300- or 400-level course themed to align with their research specializations in their final year. In this way, our graduate students build a robust teaching portfolio with the ability to put pedagogical theories into practice in a variety of courses.

Contact Information

For further information about the Ph.D. program in French, please contact us.

French and Italian Program
537 Kilgo Circle
405 N Callaway Center
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
 
Phone: 404-727-6431
Fax: 404-727-4579

Vincent Bruyere Headshot

Director of Graduate Studies

Vincent Bruyere
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies (spring 2024)
North Callaway Center 404A
Leslie Church Hartness Headshot

Senior Academic Degree Program Coordinator

Leslie Church Hartness
Graduate Program Administrator; Senior Academic Degree Program Coordinator
North Callaway Center N405