French
In addition to general university requirements for the Ph.D., the following regulations apply to graduate students in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures:
To be accepted into the Ph.D. program, students must demonstrate by an exceptionally strong academic record that they are capable of advanced study in literature. The student will normally take two to three years of graduate courses and devote the fourth year to study and research in the country on which the student's study concentrates. The well-prepared student can expect to receive the Ph.D. after five years of study. The graduate program in Modern Languages and Literatures emphasizes work in three complementary areas: literary history, close textual analysis (including explication de texte), and theory of interpretation. By way of preparing students in a variety of critical schools, the faculty and the visiting professors offer training in the different disciplines pertaining to critical theory, including philosophy, theory of language, psychoanalytic theory, intellectual history, and cultural anthropology.
In addition to the major language, the Ph.D. candidate must demonstrate proficiency in one or two other languages besides English, depending on the specialization. (See below for further information.)
A dissertation proposal, presented to the faculty and students in their section, is required before official admittance to candidacy for the Ph.D.
For students who choose to specialize in an early modern period (medieval, Renaissance, or 17th century), proficiency in Latin is required by the end of the third semester. Students may also choose a minor field: another Romance literature, modern criticism, comparative literature, medieval studies, or some other field connected with the student's major field.
Graduate Study Abroad
The Department encourages and expects graduates student to do research abroad during their program of study. In the French section, an exchange program with the École Normale Superieure offers the opportunity for graduate students to study in Paris, where they are encouraged to participate to research programs at ENS, EHESS, and other Universities; an exchange program with University Paris-Diderot-Paris 7 offers the opportunity for graduate or post-graduate students in French to study and teach in Paris; and the University of Geneva offers a fellowship each year for a grad student in the French section. Ph.D. students in the French section are also encouraged to apply for the Chateaubriand scholarship offered by the Embassy of France.
After presenting a research proposal to their advisor, with the approval of that advisor and the head of section, students may elect to go abroad for a semester or the entire academic year in order to conduct research essential to their dissertation.