Romance Languages: French and Francophone Studies

The University of Pennsylvania's Graduate Program in French Studies offers a five-year Ph.D. program.  All students admitted to the program are awarded full financial support through the University's Benjamin Franklin Fellowships, including summer funding for the first three years.  The overarching goal of the program is to train students for productive scholarship and for effective college or university teaching. We have an outstanding faculty committed to scholarly excellence and we have an impressive record in placing candidates on the job market.

In addition to our faculty having interest in a broad range of centuries, individual expertise include science studies, popular culture, film noir, fashion, travel writing, poetry, anthropology, gender, postcolonial studies, cultural history, narratology, and history of the book. Students are encouraged to incorporate new critical approaches into their dissertation topics.

Interdisciplinary study is encouraged through participation in the wide range of seminars, lectures, and colloquia sponsored by the various Graduate Groups and affiliated research institutes and centers at Penn. Students may complement their studies by taking up to four courses outside the French section. Graduate students in French and Francophone Studies may also participate in The Penn Humanities Forum which also provides a venue for doctoral students to interact with colleagues from across the disciplines.

Our admission decisions are made prior to the announcement of results for many national examinations (such as the A Levels or French Baccalaureate), but applicants are expected to be enrolled in programs that prepare them for these examinations. If you are enrolled in a program that will not release external examination results prior to our application deadlines, you must request that your school send us predictions of external examination results along with your grades.

Where national examinations are required for admission to a pre-university program (such as the IGCSE or the SPM), you should have received high marks on these examinations and should present certified copies of the results with your Penn application.

Students in our diverse global community have a wide range of passions, perspectives, and talents. Beyond academics, we would like to learn about your non-scholarly interests, extracurricular activities, and community service (though we recognize that patterns for non-academic involvement vary from country to country).