Prospective students are invited to join us for an information session to be held via Zoom on November 7, 2025, from 9.30 am to 10.30am EST.

M.A. and Ph.D. Programs in French and Francophone Studies at Penn State (Fall 2026 admission)

The Department of French and Francophone Studies at Penn State is currently recruiting outstanding candidates for advanced study leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, for a fall 2026 admission. We provide all of our full-time students with generous financial support including full tuition grants, teaching assistantships, and individual health coverage, and welcome applicants from historically underrepresented groups, for whom additional internal fellowships are often available. We also encourage international students and students from non-traditional backgrounds to apply. The deadline for submission of applications is January 15, 2026.

Penn State’s French and Francophone Studies graduate program is unique for its long-established Ph.D. specializations in Literature and Culture and Society and an interdisciplinary orientation that fosters innovative approaches to a broad variety of objects of study. In addition to its interdisciplinarity, our curriculum is global and transhistorical. We also offer three distinctive dual degrees. The first grants students a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (a top-ranked department nationally). The second grants a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies and African Studies. The third grants a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies and Visual Studies.

Faculty expertise spans women’s, gender and sexuality studies, (post-)colonial history and Francophone studies, linguistics, early modern studies, performance and film studies, material culture and aesthetics, cultural theory, popular and media culture, and creative writing. Faculty and students also work on geographical regions beyond hexagonal France, such as the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, North and West Africa.

As a community, our department embraces and supports its students and faculty. Our graduate students play a crucial role by bringing their diverse backgrounds and experiences to our intellectual pursuits. We aspire to include everyone in our individual and collective engagement with shaping the production and sharing of knowledge about and throughout the Francophone world.

Our students receive extensive pedagogical training and teach courses in language, literature, culture, and linguistics at all undergraduate levels. Grants to support our students’ conference travels and dissertation research are available through a variety of internal sources, including Penn State’s Humanities Institute and Center for Humanities and Information. In addition, the Department offers the opportunity to participate in a year-long exchange program with the Université de Strasbourg. Finally, students in French and Francophone Studies benefit from numerous initiatives, academic programs, and centers within Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, including the Africana Research Center, the African Feminist Initiative, the Rock Ethics Institute, the Committee for Early Modern Studies, the Center for Global Studies, and the Center for Democratic Deliberation. All senior Ph.D. students benefit from a Humanities Dissertation Release, during which they receive full funding to carry out research. Learn more about the recent placements of our former graduate students.

For further information on the Department of French and Francophone Studies, its graduate program, and the application procedure, please visit our website at https://french.la.psu.edu/ or contact Burleigh Hendrickson, Director of Graduate Studies, Dorothy W. Gilpatrick University Endowed Fellow in the Humanities and Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at bxh5451@psu.edu.

Prospective students are also invited to join us for an information session to be held via Zoom on November 7, 2025, from 9.30 am to 10.30am EST. In order to participate in the information session, please register with your name and email address. This session will be an opportunity to meet with members of the graduate faculty and fellow graduate students, and to ask questions about the program. For further information, please contact Burleigh Hendrickson at bxh5451@psu.edu.

Note that GRE scores are not required for admission in the program. Apply Now! We look forward to hearing from you!

Representatives from the Embassy of France will be presenting two main fellowship opportunities:

The Lafayette Fellowship at the master’s level

The Chateaubriand Fellowship at the doctoral level

Learn about opportunities for students
majoring and minoring in French!

Meet FFS faculty and instructors.
Meet the French Club and talk to advisers.

Learn about internships and education abroad.
Enjoy free pizza and a chance to win fun door prizes

Come learn about this unique two-month-long linguistic and cultural immersion in beautiful Franche-Comté, France!

Join the Institute for Field Education’s Emily Freeman to learn about the programs and internship opportunities in your field.

A semester of study abroad to gain fluency, cross-cultural skills and international work experience.
. Individualized internship placement for all majors,
. 6 weeks of preparation in and out of the classroom,
. Guided independent research project.

Learn about opportunities for students majoring and minoring in French!

Meet FFS faculty and instructors, the French Club, and advisers. Learn about internships and study abroad.

Enjoy free pizza and a chance to win fun door prizes.

Click here to RSVP!

“Trente ans après le genocide contre les Tutsi au Rwanda: littérature et le devoir de mémoire”

Odile Cazenave is Professor of French Studies in Romance Studies, African Studies, and the Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University. Her publications include Femmes rebelles: naissance d’un nouveau roman africain au féminin (1996), Afrique sur Seine. Une nouvelle génération de romanciers africains à Paris (2003), and Contemporary Francophone African Writers and the Burden of Commitment (2011, co-authored with Patricia Celerier). Prof. Cazenave has written on a wide range of topics related to gender and sexuality, postmemory, the local and the global, art from trauma, filiation and transmission, the diaspora, as well as issues of displacement, migration, and citizenship. Her most recent publications include articles on Indian Ocean Literature, film, and globalization; on writers and filmmakers such as Assia Djebar, Khady Sylla, Ananda Devi, Kivu Ruhorahoza, Fabienne and Veronique Kanor, Véronique Tadjo, Boubacar Boris Diop, Alain Mabanckou, Raharimanana, Sami Tchak, and Abdourahman Waberi.