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.
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: Camus, Djebar, Ben Jelloun, Francophone Literature, The Maghreb, Mediterranean Studies, Animality Studies, Translation Theory and Practice
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; and Director of French
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
Juliette Malandain
jmalanda@uci.edu
Lecturer in French
Interests: French and American literature, Poetry and the Poetic language in novel-writing (research thesis), Translation, Francophone Culture and History, Second-language Acquisition
Maryse Mijalski
mjmijals@uci.edu
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Sr. Lecturer in French and Director of the French Language Program
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
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
Study Abroad
Students in French are encouraged to spend from one quarter to a full academic year in a French university. Through the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP), UCI participates in several exchange programs with major French schools and universities in the following cities: Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Grenoble and Lyon. Students may visit the UCI Study Abroad Center to find UC Education Abroad Programs, as well as internships, summer programs, and volunteering opportunities in France.
Humanities Out There (H.O.T.)
Students are also encouraged to participate in the service learning program, Humanities Out There, an educational partnership between UCI's School of Humanities and the Santa Ana Unified School District. HOT strives to "create a new community of scholar-citizens united by shared values of intellectual inquiry, action through creativity, and civic inclusiveness." Graduate students lead groups of undergraduates and develop curriculum for K-12 classrooms. Research shows that graduate students in the humanities who have participated in this program have a 100% rate of job placement in institutions of higher learning.
French Library Resources - UCI possesses one of the best collections of books in French and on French and francophone literature in the United States. If the Langson Library does not have the volume, it can be quickly accessed by Interlibrary loan from anywhere within the UC system (or beyond) within a matter of days. Unique to UCI is the Special Collection in Critical Theory. Housed in this collection are the manuscripts of Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, and others. Graduate students are welcome to use this excellent resource.
The California Digital Library contains on-line books and journals and a variety of links to other collections. Students might also want to consult The Voice of the Shuttle, a website for humanities research, as well as the MLA Bibliography, an invaluable resource for conducting research on literature and the arts.
UCI subscribes to the ARTFL Project, a resource administered by the University of Chicago providing access to an extraordinary number of French texts on line.
MLA International Bibliography
An abstracting and indexing database that covers a broad range of humanities subjects, including world languages and literatures, linguistics, dramatic arts, film, folklore, rhetoric and writing studies, teaching of language, and history of publishing.
A campus platform for peer-assisted student success programs. ZotPASS is a free application designed to help students find tutors in a variety of subjects, schedule appointments, and locate drop-in services with tutors and peer educators.