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French and Francophone Studies

  • Program Requirements and Opportunities
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French and Francophone Studies

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  • World Map with French speaking Countries highlighted
    Global Language
    French, a global language, is spoken on five continents, making the study of French a valuable pursuit within the greater global landscape.
    View Program Requirements and Opportunities to get started
  • Professor Armstrong in class
    Faculty and Staff
    One of the top undergraduate French programs in the country, our dedicated faculty and staff members are the backbone of our great program!
    View a full list of our Faculty and Staff
  • Students Studying
    Course Catalog
    Our department boasts a diverse course catalog, covering a wide-range of interests within French and Francophone studies.
    View our course offerings
  • Avignon Institut
    Institut d’études françaises d’Avignon
    Students are given the opportunity to experience French language and culture firsthand, by studying at our Institut d’études françaises.
    Learn more about the Institut d’études françaises d’Avignon
  • BMC French students near Avignon
    French students near Avignon
    French majors sightseeing while attending the Institut d’études françaises d’Avignon.
    Learn more about Institut d'Avignon

Mission Statement

We wish to empower our students to: 

  1. Speak, read, and write in French with near-native proficiency.
  2. Engage the French and Francophone world and achieve cultural literacy.
  3. Become aware of cultural and linguistic diversity as global citizens who may someday work in the Francophone world.
  4. Communicate, with logic and empathy, among different perspectives and values especially in cross-cultural contexts.
  5. Think critically about texts, films, music, and fine arts as objects of inquiry.
  6. Analyze French and Francophone literatures as sources of human experience.
  7. Prepare for and pursue graduate studies, if they wish, in a variety of fields.

The French department is recognized as one of the top undergraduate French programs in the country. It has been called “a jewel of a program” and “one of the mainstays of French education” in the States. (1) The excellence of the program and of the students it attracts can be gauged by the latters’ success in winning postbaccalaureate awards: Every year but one for the past fifteen years, at least one of our senior majors has been awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in France. In 2004, five students won this coveted award. Eight recent alumnae are recipients of Rhodes, Watson, Mellon, and Jacob K. Javits Fellowships for subsequent study. Every year, two or three of our majors who are interested in university teaching are accepted by the top doctoral programs in French, comparative literature and political science. They often have been admitted to our demanding four-year A.B./M.A. program, which is one of few in this country and hence attracts gifted students of French to the College.

Many of our majors apply for entry-level positions in international affairs (e.g., ElfAquitaine, Certainteed) and international relations (e.g., the U.N., where two of our A.B./M.A. students have interned or work, and The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy). Many opt to prepare for careers in the international arena by applying to graduate programs in international studies or public health and to law school; in the latter area, our graduates have found that the rigorous training they have in dissecting texts and analyzing discourse is excellent preparation. One or two majors each year head to medical school, where the need for bilingual doctors is more and more apparent in this hemisphere and in world health organizations active in Francophone Africa, Eastern Europe and the Far East. Often our graduates have chosen a double major, e.g., French and Political Science, French and Economics, French and Anthropology, French and Comparative Literature, or French and a hard science (Physics and Mathematics most recently); some opt to minor in a related field (Art History) or concentration (International Studies: Economics, Politics or Ethics).

One of the reasons our French students fare so well in the competition for positions in the job market or in graduate school is that our program is known for its rigor: our undergraduate offerings profit from the presence of a faculty fully equipped to teach both undergraduate and graduate courses and from the presence of A.B./M.A. students in our most advanced courses. Unlike Ivy League institutions and large research universities, our undergraduates in French, and in languages in general, are not taught by graduate assistants. For example, a faculty member often teaches a senior or graduate-level seminar in the same semester that s/he teaches elementary, intermediate or third-year French.

In other words, we offer the best of both worlds to students interested in language acquisition: intensive language learning tracks (for those beginning a second or third language) or, in some cases, the possibility of earning a A.B./M.A. in four or five years, both possibilities offered by a dedicated faculty expert in teaching French language, literature and culture from the beginning to the most advanced levels.

Yet one other component of our French program is the well-known and highly selective Institut d’Etudes françaises d’Avignon, our summer institute in France which annually admits five to ten Bryn Mawr students among its 40-50 advanced undergraduates and graduate students from American and European universities. The Institut is designed for selected undergraduates and graduate students with a serious interest in French literature and culture, most particularly for those who anticipate professional careers requiring a knowledge of the language and civilisation of France. The curriculum includes general and advanced courses in French language, literature, social sciences, history, and art. The program is open to students of high academic achievement who have completed a course in French at the third-year level or the equivalent. The graduates of this program are at the forefront of their profession, as professors in top college programs, and as leaders in NGO's, public health, law, and international banking and commerce.

Most French majors spend either their sophomore or junior summer at the Avignon Institut and/or one or two semesters of their junior year at approved programs in France, Switzerland and Canada. Students on the Bryn Mawr campus can reproduce this immersion experience by participating in the Tables françaises, conversation groups, and by profiting from film series, lectures and other events organized by French and Francophone Studies.

(1) Prof. Lawrence Kritzman, Dartmouth College.
French Placement Exam Information
Language TA Workshop
Honors Theses
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Related Sites:

Department of French at Haverford

Useful Links:

  • French Department Advisors
  • Representative Careers
  • French Theses Titles
Molly Seavy-Nesper, '12
Alumna/us Spotlight
Molly Seavy-Nesper '12
Associate Web and Digital Producer for NPR's "Fresh Air with Terry Gross"
"In 2010 I studied abroad in Paris. I lived at the foot of Montmartre, right at where the...
Department of French and Francophone Studies, Old Library 103
Bryn Mawr College
101 N. Merion Avenue
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 19010-2899
Phone: 
610-526-5198
Fax: 
610-526-7479


Grace Armstrong, Acting Chair and Graduate Advisor
Phone: 610-526-5386
garmstro@brynmawr.edu

Oliva Cardona, Program Assistant
Phone: 610-526-5198
ocardona@brynmawr.edu

 

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