French Studies/Études françaises

Through seminars, experiential learning components, written and oral examinations, and the preparation of the dissertation, PhD candidates will acquire the academic and professional training necessary to conduct independent research, produce scholarly publications, and teach French Studies at the post-secondary level.

Admission Requirements

To be admitted to the program, students must have a Master of Arts (MA) degree in French Studies (or in a closely allied field). Candidates must have achieved an overall average of at least 80% in their MA program. Applicants are required to submit a plan of study, and a writing sample in French. Applicants must also forward three letters of reference, at least two of which must be from academic sources.

The Three Fields

There are three fields in the PhD program. Students can be admitted into one or two of the three fields.

1. Electronic archiving, editing, and publishing in a Francophone context

This unique field includes the study of manuscript retrieval and editing, hypertext studies, the study of the impact of electronic media on French and Francophone literatures and cultures, questions on the history of the book and the e-book, electronic and multimedia teaching of French and Francophone literatures and cultures, and also the archiving of book illustrations and other cultural material such as letters, personal archives, and private texts.

2. Early modern French literary studies and theory

Early modern French literary studies and theory have long been a traditional strength of the Department of French Studies at the University of Waterloo. A cluster of internationally known scholars work in innovative areas in the period ranging from the early Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century. These areas include the study and publishing of texts produced by women, research and archiving of travel literature and epistolary documents, the study of early image projections in revolutionary France, and the examination of the importance of print culture in the creation a national literary institution in France.

3. Cultural Studies in a Francophone context

This field focusses on contemporary Francophone contexts from the nineteenth century to the present; areas of study might include such topics as contemporary North African literature, recent Franco-Ontarian literature, or women’s writing in contemporary France.In addition to considering literature as the product of conditions in a particular place and time, the cultural studies field encourages interdisciplinarity through the critical study of cultural artefacts produced in a variety of media: literary texts, para-literatures, theatre, film, music, painting, etc. This field draws upon diverse methodologies (semiotics, feminist and queer theory, poststructuralist theory, post-colonial theory, neomarxist and historical approaches, minority studies, genre and media studies, etc.) to study a variety of cultural products.

Degree Requirements

The program requirements for the PhD program are as follows:

Residence

The PhD is designed to take four years for completion. Students must be on campus for at least two years, and enrol in the program fulltime.

Language Requirement

Students must demonstrate reading competence in one language other than French or English.

Course Work

During their first year of study, PhD students are required to complete six half-term courses, one of which shall be the compulsory Research Methods in French Studies course (FR600) if it was not taken during previous MA studies. Students may substitute for the equivalent of one half-term course an experiential learning component, such as an editing or archiving project (within the framework of the Departement of French Studies research projects), completed under the supervision of a faculty member.

Comprehensive Examinations

During their second year of study, PhD students are required to complete two comprehensive examinations: the Secondary Field Exam and the Primary Field Exam.

a) The Secondary Field Exam

Students prepare, under the supervision of a faculty member, a reading list of primary texts and a critical bibliography in a selected secondary field of specialization, not directly related to the PhD thesis. At the end of the first term of Year II, students take a written examination in this secondary field.

b) The Primary Field Exam

Prepared under the direction of the thesis supervisor, the Primary Field Exam entails both a written and an oral component and is intended to prepare students for the writing of the PhD thesis.  Students prepare, under the supervision of their thesis advisor, a reading list of primary texts and a critical bibliography on the thesis topic. Students then write a 20-30 page thesis prospectus that is submitted to the thesis committee for approval.  The prospectus, the reading list and the critical bibliography are defended orally before the committee. Students must successfully complete both components of the Primary Field Exam in order to proceed to the writing of the thesis.

PhD Thesis

During their third and fourth years of study, students conduct research and write the PhD thesis. The thesis is evaluated by a committee comprising the thesis supervisor, two additional members of the Department of French Studies, and one external reader.  The student must also successfully defend the thesis at an oral examination open to the public.The Associate Chair, Graduate Studies, is responsible for the selection of the readers, in consultation with the student and the supervisor.

Summary of the PhD Programme of Study