Our coursework exposes majors and minors to the wealth of cultural experiences in the French speaking world and gives students a solid knowledge of French and Francophone thought, literature, arts and visual media.

Survey courses and upper-division seminars offer a range of exposure to the French cultural past and the vast ethnic and national diversity of the French-speaking present. The major explores distinctly French contributions to world culture and allows students to familiarize themselves with the history, forms, and conventions of a rich literary and artistic tradition. In addition to covering a broad range of historical periods, trans-cultural approaches, and topics ranging from Enlightenment political thought to animal studies and France's relations with the Muslim world, the French curriculum brings far-flung periods and places to life. It links analysis of contemporary cultural phenomena with more distant historical epochs and texts. Medieval epic is studied in tandem with "Game of Thrones," for example, or the history of Caribbean slavery with the figure of the Zombie. All courses for the major and minor are interdisciplinary and associate elements of other disciplines such as media studies, art history, science studies, philosophy, ecology, or anthropology with the study of literary texts and other cultural artifacts.

The undergraduate degree in French emphasizes knowledge and awareness of:

• critical thinking;
• significant works of textual and visual culture in the French speaking world;
• a range of French Literature, its historical and cultural context seen from an interdisciplinary perspective (in relation with art, philosophy, religion) as well as methods of literary and other media analysis;
• contemporary French culture, politics and current events;  

In addition, students completing their degrees in French are expected to acquire the ability and skills to:

• speak and understand modern French both in daily life and academic setting;
• read and write modern standard French for all academic and professional settings;
• follow with reasonable comprehension French broadcasts of film;
• analyze and interpret texts or visual representations;
• become familiar to a range of cultural expressions and literary genres;
• become familiar with critical methodologies.