The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures offers an M.A. and Ph.D. in French. Both Degrees provide a rigorous and comprehensive training in French literary history, theory and criticism. The research and teaching interests of our faculty are deeply interdisciplinary, extending the study of literature and culture to fields such as aesthetics, continental philosophy, cinema studies, genre studies, music, law, political history, anthropology, psychoanalysis, gender, and colonial and postcolonial studies. Likewise, our Faculty's training ranges across the history of French and Francophone studies, including Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment and post-Revolutionary French literature and culture, to contemporary French and Francophone studies. Within the Francophone world, faculty members teach and conduct research on North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Quebec, and the Caribbean, as well as focusing on immigrant communities in France.<br><br>We believe in the close mentoring and careful training of a select number of future scholars and teachers. This means that our students receive the personal attention that is essential for success in a highly competitive profession, and which is not as available in larger programs. Further, the small size of our graduate seminars creates a learning environment that is both intellectually stimulating and supportive. Students can also benefit from training in language pedagogy, professional development workshops, and a year-long exchange program with the Universite de Rennes. We offer every advantage of a large research institution while retaining an individual approach that is challenging as well as collaborative.