The French Studies major provides liberal arts training that sharpens communicative, analytical and interpretive skills. It is designed to help students appreciate the language, literature and culture of France and the Francophone world. It also aims to form general habits of thought and expression that allow students to interpret complex symbolic systems and gain insights into aesthetic experience. Students learn to use diverse texts as a means for understanding culturally specific as well as universal problems, and they do so in ways that stimulate their curiosity and learning beyond their time at the university.