French Studies

The French section at Durham is welcoming and open, with friendly, enthusiastic staff members who are world experts in their fields. We pride ourselves on the integration between teaching and research: our undergraduate programme is informed by our scholarly work at every level. Students of French at Durham have the opportunity to shape their curriculum from the first year, choosing amongst modules that reflect the diversity of staff expertise, which encompasses literature, cinema, theatre studies, political and critical theory, philosophy, translation, post-colonial studies and gender studies, from the medieval period to the present day. In the 2019 Complete University Guide, Durham was ranked no. 2 in the UK for French, a ranking based on student satisfaction, research quality, graduate prospects, and entry standards.

Staff are closely involved in the running and activities of the following institutes and research centres:

• Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
• Centre for Cultural Ecologies (CCE)
• Centre for Intercultural Mediation (CIM)
• Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies (CNCS)
• Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures (CVAC)

At postgraduate level, we offer an MA by Research, and supervision of PhD topics in all of the areas mentioned above and more, depending on the research interests of the individual student. Candidates should, in the first instance, contact the member of staff whose research interests correspond most closely to their proposed topic.

French and Francophone topics can also be studied as part of the School's taught MAs in in Languages, Literatures and Cultures and Translation Studies.

Students wishing to take French as an elective or subsidiary subject, rather than as part of a named degree programme, should contact the CFLS.