The Department of French and Italian at the University of California, Irvine offers a graduate program in French with a strong theoretical and multidisciplinary orientation. Besides exercising specialities in the field of French and Francophone literatures, its faculty members are actively involved in related disciplines such as critical theory, philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, women's studies, cultural studies and comparative literature. The orientation of the program in French is a result of the faculty's sense, despite individual differences in fields of interest and approach, that the analysis of discourse and its strategies, vocabularies, structures, presuppositions, and goals constitutes the principal object of literary study.

The theoretical and multi-disciplinary approach to literature is a demanding one, requiring both a knowledge of the specific disciplines brought together and a critical awareness of its own strategies and concepts. The graduate curriculum seeks to provide the student with the necessary tools for advanced literary study, so conceived. In small seminars designed to stimulate intellectual exchange, students and faculty explore literature written in French within the context of relevant historical, cultural or theoretical issues. They raise questions engaged by literary discourse and they study critically the theories formulated to account for literature and its contexts. Courses tend to cross the lines between disciplines and to emphasize both the close reading of texts and modern theories of history, art, film, culture, literature, and criticism. Students also pursue their work in related fields outside the department and can choose to do a formal Emphasis in Critical Theory, Visual Studies, or Women's Studies.

In the winter of each year, Professor Etienne Balibar enhances the offerings of the Department with courses in critical theory that are of interest to a wide range of students in the Humanities.

Students are encouraged to pursue their work in a French-speaking country. An exchange program with the Université Paris X, Nanterre or one of various fellowships can provide the means. Students also may apply to spend the dissertation year as graduate student instructors in the UC Education Abroad Program in French and European Studies in Paris.

The Department offers the degree of doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) in French. The Master of Arts degree (M.A.) is considered a step towards the Ph.D. degree. Only students intending to pursue full-time studies toward the doctorate are admitted to the program.

The UCI Graduate Program co-hosts a Conference for Graduate Students with the graduate program at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The conference location alternates each year between Irvine and Santa Barbara and features presentations by graduate students at every level. Professors and graduate students from other programs also participate. The conference contributes to the Department's on-going attempt to provide graduate students with professional experience and training. Professors in the Department also lead seminars in Job Hunting and Grant Writing and organize Mock Interviews for graduate students seeking employment in higher education.

Recent graduates of the program teach at such institutions as the University of California at Davis, University of Michigan, University of Maine, Reed College, University of Texas at Austin, University of Missouri, University of California at San Diego, and University of Alabama.

Please check the link to "Campus Connections" for more information on the opportunities and options described above.

The Doctor of Philosophy Degree

Teaching & Professional Activity

Research Facilities

Admission Guidelines and Application Information

Financial Aid

Housing

Representative Courses Taught

Catalogue

Graduate Student Profiles