The French Program offers a wide range of courses on French and Francophone literature, history, philosophy, and film. We take an interdisciplinary approach, stressing the relations among the aesthetic, the political, and the ethical. Students who take courses in the department have the chance to work with outstanding teachers and scholars in small seminars and design their own program of study.
On the undergraduate level, students can choose to either major or minor in French and Francophone literature and culture. They also have the opportunity to double major in French and International Studies by receiving double credit for two upper-division courses.
Majors, minors, and double majors are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to study in France for a summer, a semester, or a year at one of the several centers run by the Education Abroad Program.
The Francophone World - A new focus in French & International Studies. Students may count two courses in French toward both a French major and an International Studies major. (Click Here for Brochure)
On the graduate level (currently suspended), we have designed our graduate program to be as flexible as possible, in order to allow students to customize their coursework and their M.A. and Ph.D examinations to fit their own intellectual interests. We have few fixed requirements for the degree, in order to allow each student's course of study to be shaped in consultation with faculty mentors selected by the student. We encourage students to take advantage of one of the interdisciplinary emphases we offer with Comparative Literature, Critical Theory, and Women's Studies.
Graduate students have the chance to do research in Paris for a year, either with the support of a fellowship, as a participant in the exchange program we have instituted with University of Paris X (Nanterre), or as a graduate tutor with the UC Education Abroad Program in Paris.
The Undergraduate Program in French offers a broad humanistic course of study designed for students in the liberal arts. The orientation of the program is multidisciplinary, where the study of literature is linked to critical, cultural, and historical concerns. Courses reflect the faculty's interest in the related disciplines of history, philosophy, anthropology, women's studies, cultural studies, postcolonial theory and comparative literature, and express its conviction that the study of French literature and culture is enriched by pursuing its relations with other disciplines, fields, and cultures.
Lower-division language courses encourage students to participate in the creative process of language, to think in French as they learn to understand, speak, read, and write. These courses are taught entirely in French, and the approach to teaching stresses the interdependence of the four basic language skills and makes them mutually reinforcing.
At the intermediate lower-division level, texts of contemporary literary and social interest provide the focus for advanced conversation, reading, and composition. After the second year, advanced courses in conversation and writing enable students to attain a greater degree of proficiency, preparing them for further study in the multidisciplinary upper-division program.
All upper-division offerings are taught in the seminar mode. Because classes are limited in size, they promote and encourage participation and discussion and facilitate direct contact with professors. In the introductory courses in literature, complete texts are studied in their historical context. The student learns to analyze and interpret different types of creative literature and is introduced to various critical concepts and vocabularies. At the more advanced level, the multidisciplinary courses bring together material and methodologies from the various disciplines in order to address interpretive problems of French literature, culture, and history.The content of these courses changes yearly according to the interests of both faculty and students.
In addition to these courses, the French program offers to its undergraduate students a series of extra-curricular activities: French plays and movies, lectures and group discussions on French culture and society as well as a weekly French table organized by the Graduate students.
Study Abroad
Students in French are encouraged to spend from one quarter to a full academic year in a French university. Through the Education Abroad Program (EAP), UCI participates in several exchange programs with major French schools and universities in the following cities: Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Grenoble and Lyon.
As part of the Division of Undergraduate Education at the University of California, the Study Abroad Center (CIE) also helps students to find internships, summer programs, and volunteering opportunities in France.

Maxime Bey-Rozet
bey.rozet@uci.edu
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Assistant Professor of European Languages and Studies; French Core Faculty
Interests: Extreme cinemas, 20th century French literature and culture, French cinema and television, trauma studies, industry studies, memory studies

Laura Klein
lkleinto@uci.edu
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Lecturer, French
Interests:

Christophe Litwin
christophe.litwin@uci.edu
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Associate Professor of European Languages and Studies; French Core Faculty; German Joint Faculty; M.A. in European Thought and Culture Core Faculty

Catherine Malabou
cmalabou@uci.edu
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Professor of Comparative Literature and European Languages and Studies; French Core Faculty; German Joint Faculty; M.A. in European Thought and Culture Core Faculty
Interests: German Idealism, Contemporary French Philosophy, Critical Theory, Neurobiology, Epigenetics

Maryse Mijalski
mjmijals@uci.edu
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Lecturer and Academic Coordinator, French & Italian
Interests: Second Language Teaching & Learning, Telecollaboration, Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence

Ghada Mourad
graphael@uci.edu
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Lecturer, French
Interests: French and Francophone studies, postcolonial Francophone North African literature, Senegalese cinema, Arabic literature, modernity, decoloniality, political dissent through non-normative gender expressions, translation practice and studies.

Ann Billiaert Rosen
arosen@uci.edu
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Lecturer, French
Interests: 20th-century French literature, decolonization; 20th-century Latin American literature (PhD), the Latin American detective novel, re-presentation of the Body in 20th- and 21st-century Latin American literature; language and culture of francophone countries

Anaïs Tisserand
atissera@uci.edu
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Nanterre Lecturer, French
Interests: Immigration, diaspora studies, Chicana feminism, second language teaching

Georges Van Den Abbeele
gvandena@uci.edu
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Professor Comparative Literature, English, European Languages and Studies; French Core Faculty
Interests: French and European philosophical literature, travel narrative and tourism/migration studies; critical theory and aesthetics