FRENCH GRADUATE STUDIES

Visit the Graduate School for admission information and the online application to the PhD program. Please note that only online applications are accepted. Any difficulties or special requests for paper applications should be addressed directly to the Graduate School.

Questions of a general nature relating to the Department of Romance Studies may be directed to the graduate field assistant, Kristina Baier.

WELCOME |

While graduate studies in French at Cornell are attuned to all the trends and schools of thought that constitute the study of the Humanities today (from psychoanalysis and new historicism to cultural studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies and visual and media studies), the Graduate Program in French is linked to a certain intellectual history. At its origins, it was bound up with the development of textual criticism and literary theory in this country. This historical link is still represented by the publication of Diacritics, a journal of theory and criticism founded more than thirty years ago by members of the graduate field. Diacritics, currently housed in the Department of Romance Studies and overseen by its three sections, became one of the first American academic journals to draw serious attention to the intellectual ferment occurring in France in the wake of the Structuralist movement, and to translate its works into English. In particular, it was among the very first to translate and explicate the works of Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida, with whom it has long been identified; it was also one of the earliest journals to devote special issues to the influential field of French feminism. Over the years, Diacritics has become one of the principle academic resources, here and abroad, for the study of, predominantly, French theoretical writing.

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GRADUATE FIELD AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY|

The Graduate field now extends beyond the confines of the Romance Studies Department. Its composition reflects the commitment to interdisciplinarity that characterizes the Humanities at Cornell. It includes faculty specializing in European intellectual and cultural history, visual studies, linguistics, comparative literature, English, and Africana studies.

The opportunity to do interdisciplinary research is enhanced by the structure of the program which allows the students to complete a concentration in a minor field. Typical concentrations have included linguistics, gender studies (FGSS), art history, visual studies, and comparative literature.

To further their intellectual experience at Cornell, graduate students are encouraged to take advantage of other interdisciplinary and specialized programs at Cornell, including the Society for the Humanities, the Summer School of Criticism and Theory, Cornell Cinema, Medieval studies, Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Institute for European studies.
The Society for the Humanities, the Institute for European Studies, the interdisciplinary Program in French Studies, the Cornell Council for the Arts, and the Professors-at-large program cooperate with the Field's participating faculty in bringing distinguished writers and scholars to Cornell for extended visits. Our students and faculty have been able to cultivate valuable contacts with such creative artists and critics as: Mieke Bal, Judith Butler, Cathy Caruth, Tom Conley, Helene Cixous, Joan Dejean, Jacques Derrida, Assia Djebar and Jean-Luc Nancy.

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CURRICULUM|

The following list of recent graduate courses offered by members of the core French faculty gives a good idea of faculty interests and of the kinds of subjects prospective students can expect to study at Cornell:

Exquisite Corpses of the Middle Ages
Poetry and Poverty: 19th Century French Lyricism and the Times of Indigence
Jacques Derrida
Femininity, Ethics and Aesthetics
Montaigne
Francophone Postcolonial Discourse
Baroque Bodies
(Un)romantic Sexualities
Theorizing Film
Exoticism and Eroticism: Figures of the Other in the French Enlightenment
Literature after the Death of God: In and around the CollËge de sociologie
The Novel as Masterwork
French Feminisms
From Object to Event: Postcolonial Francophone Cinema
Psychoanalytic Theory
Edouard Glissant
Literary Histories of the Saints
Proust and his Critics
Oulipo
Racine: Myth and Melancholia
Biblical Diasporas in French Thought
19th Century French Women Writers
Love and Hate in the Middle Ages
Anthropology and Genealogy
Baudelaire and Modern Criticism
Marguerite Duras
Movements of Identity

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FINANCIAL SUPPORT|

All entering students receive generous fellowship support and summer funding. Currently, support is guaranteed by the graduate school for four years for students entering with an M.A. or five years for students entering with a B.A. This guarantee includes two years of fellowship and two or more years of teaching assistantships. These provide full tuition awards and, in addition, offer academic year stipends and student health insurance coverage. Students receive additional funding for the summer. Travel money and grants are also available to fund research projects and conference travel.

Prospective graduate students are encouraged to consider applying for outside fellowships. Click the following link for information about the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship

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TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES|

Whereas graduate students in many French departments teach only language courses, our students have a wide range of teaching opportunities, including French literature courses at the intermediate level and Freshman writing seminars on topics of their own choosing and design.

Recent Freshman Seminars taught by Graduate Students in French include Monstrous Literature and Marginal Representations, The Medieval French Hero and its Traditions, Wanderer's Voices, Carnival Cultures, On the Move: Home and Travel in Francophone Literature, Women of Letters, Women in Letters, and A year in French History: 1933.

Graduate students teaching introductory courses in language, literature, and writing meet regularly with the staff supervising those courses in order to discuss pedagogy. Training programs are available in the department of Romance Studies.

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SCHOLARLY AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES|

ENTRALOGOS|

Graduate students, with support from the Department, assume responsibility for organizing an annual symposium called the Entralogos conference around a topic of their choosing. They generally bring to campus three prominent speakers from outside who represent the three sections of the department (French, Italian, and Spanish) but mainly invite contributions from students themselves. The proceedings have frequently been published in booklet form. Entralogos provides the participants with invaluable pre-professional experience in the presentation and publication of their work.

DIACRITICS|

In addition, advanced students can petition to join the Editorial board of Diacritics and participate in reviewing and evaluating submissions. Students have even been responsible for editing special issues of the journal on topics of their choosing.

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RESEARCH ABROAD|

Students have many opportunities to study abroad and are encouraged to spend one of their fellowship years in France or in a Francophone area. Alternatively, they can take advantage of our exchange programs with French academic institutions. While graduate students on fellowship can with the consent of their graduate committee attend a university of their choice abroad, the Graduate program in French currently has two exchange agreements with such institutions: one with Paris XII- Créteil, and the other with L'École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ex-Fontenay-St.Cloud). Under the terms of these agreements, students spend the whole academic year in France, teaching English as "lecteurs" while conducting their research.

Students going to Paris-12 are registered in the French University system through the university of Paris-12 which gives them access to courses and seminars in other schools or universities in addition to those of Paris-12. At Paris-12, Cornell students are required to teach 12 hours per week in the Department of American Studies. Travel expenses to and from the US are covered by the Department of Romance Studies, and students receive a monthly pay check and medical coverage from the French government. Paris-12 is reachable by subway and students are free to choose where they want to live. In our experience, French financial compensation for teaching provides enough money for room, board, and some enjoyment of life in the city.

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GRADUATE STUDENTS|

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STUDENT INTERESTS|

LAUREN BEELEY

ASHLEY BRANDENBURG

CORY BROWNING

PHILIPPE BONIN
My reserach interests lie with the 18th century Enlightenment movement. I have developed interests in several areas: the epistolary form (how letters achieve their goals), the evolution of the public sphere (via the theoretical work of Jurgen Habermas), and the representation of the "masses" in movies about the French Revolution (with keen interests on Renoir's La Marseillaise, Scola's la Nuit de Varennes, and Mnouchkine's 1789. My dissertation project so far involves research on Diderot's Encyclopedie, on Beaumarchais's Mariage de Figaro, and on an array of 18th century French epistolary novels.

SHANNA CARLSON

MOHIT CHANDA

ANTONIO DE RIDDER

CLARISSA EAGLE

CAROLINE FERRARIS-BESSO

ZACHARY GOOCH

ROBERT HENRY

MARIE KAYA

MARÍA FERNANDA NEGRETE

MICHAEL REYES

KATIE STULL
19th- and 20th-century French literature with interests in gender studies, sexuality, and music.

LÉO TERTRAIN

IOANA VARTOLOMEI

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