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The Ph.D. Program in French at CUNY’s
Graduate Center
Executive Officer: Deputy Executive Officer: Assistant Program Officer: Room: 4202 The Ph.D. Program in French at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York offers an innovative combination of traditional training in French and Francophone Literatures with highly progressive interdisciplinary curricular options. While specializing in one of the traditional literary periods, our graduate students are offered the possibility of enriching their professional and academic dossier with the option that would best suit their particular interests. These options, namely Translation Studies, Comparative Studies, Cultural Studies, International Human Rights in the French-Speaking World, and Performance Studies, draw from a wide array of disciplines with courses readily available either within our own program or in the many other prestigious programs of The Graduate Center. In addition, students are strongly encouraged to opt for a multidisciplinary Certificate, which they can fulfill at the Graduate Center. These include: American Studies, Film Studies, Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, Women’s Studies. Combined with the students’ literary interests and interdisciplinary options, these certificates are valuable assets to ensure success with their future job search in an ever-increasingly competitive market. Among our 20 faculty members, we are proud to have Distinguished Professors Mary Ann Caws, Edouard Glissant, Nancy K. Miller, and the President-Elect of the MLA for 2005, Domna C. Stanton. Not only do our students have access and exposure to top scholars, but, during their very first year, they undergo a rigorous seminar in research and writing in which they can hone their interests and intellectual skills. In addition to this training, our students are encouraged to teach French as a foreign language in one of our CUNY colleges, comprising ten senior colleges and six community colleges, where they can benefit from a hands-on training in cutting-edge learning methodologies under the supervision of a local pedagogical coordinator. Our studentsOur graduates find jobs in the most prestigious institutions in and outside New York City. Some of them are currently working at Swarthmore College, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. We also take pride in our diverse body of students, who come from all over the world, including France, Spain, the Congo, Senegal, Morocco, the Caribbean, Canada and different regions of the United States. As they engage in their daily coursework, they find a dynamic community filled with mutual support and mentoring, where they can develop strong ties with one another. In addition, they are also encouraged to participate in the academic decision-making process by serving on our committees, namely the French Executive, Admissions and Awards, Faculty Membership and Curriculum committees and the Board of the Henri Peyre French Institute. While giving them an “insider’s perspective” on the dynamics of the department and the Graduate Center at large, this committee experience is a valuable part of their development as new members of the academic community. Currently, the Program has 48 students, and 17 of them specialize in an area of Francophone studies. 20 students are currently working on their dissertation. 15 of our doctoral candidates work full-time. 33 teach full time or part time either at CUNY or elsewhere, or both. Financial SupportDespite having one of the most affordable tuitions in the country, we routinely offer financial support in the form of tuition awards, teaching and minority fellowships. While some of our new students are offered teaching positions in our CUNY colleges, others are encouraged to apply to The Graduate Center’s financial aid packages, including minority fellowships such as the Magnet program. The new Graduate Teaching Fellowship program for incoming students provides recipients with five year of paid tuition and teaching at the Graduate Teaching Fellowship rate for three years. The College Writing Fellowship available to second and third-level students is also a competitive and prestigious award that offers a high rate of support to doctoral candidates working on Writing-Across-the-Curriculum initiatives throughout the CUNY campuses. The Program also works closely with the Henri Peyre French Institute, which sponsors conferences and symposia and offers several fellowships to students. EventsRecent events and conferences have included Edouard Glissant (Fall 1998), Queer Middle Ages (Fall 1998), Millenium Mallarmé (Spring 1999), Honoring Maryse Condé (Fall 1999), The Scandal of Art (Spring 2000), Quebec Film Festival (Spring 2000), Postmodern/Premodern (Spring 2001), Migration, Memory, Trace (Spring 2001), and New York Medieval Festival/Lire en Fête 2002: Les Moyens Âges (Fall 2002), Jean-Claude Schmitt: Visual Culture in the Middle Ages (Fall 2003), Venus Khoury-Ghata (Fall 2003), Around the Bicentennial: Haiti 200 Years Later (Spring 2004), Ahmadou Kourouma: A Conversation About His Work and Human Rights Legacy in Africa (Fall 2004), The American Premiere of Racine's Bajazet (Spring 2005), and Conference on Human Rights and the Humanities (Fall 2005). Curricular OptionsStudents can elect to fulfill their requirements through a variety of courses ranging from the Middle Ages to the present, in all areas of the French-speaking world. They can also elect a curricular option that structures their courses according to a certain field of study. The Program offers five such options:
ContactFor more information, please feel free to contact the French Department at (212) 817 8365, or email Ckulikowski@gc.cuny.edu. Please address questions about this website to the webmaster: Cwojtkowski@gc.cuny.edu. |
