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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
French
Taught programmes
Taught Pre-Master's programmes
Research programmes
Kent offers an excellent environment for postgraduate study in French literature, thought, culture, society and the visual arts from the 18th century to the present. French at Kent was in the top ten in the UK in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. Our main research interests include word and image studies, narratology, literary theory, psychoanalysis, sociolinguistics, postcolonial studies, gender studies and autobiography. Staff and postgraduates in French take a leading role in the Faculty of Humanities' Centre for Modern European Literature, whose activities include conferences, lectures, research seminars and reading groups. Students also participate in an annual international conference organised by research students from across the School of European Culture and Languages.
Our programmes benefit from Kent's proximity to Paris in more than one way. Most colleagues within French have contacts in Paris. We have a long-standing exchange with the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure. A more recent development is the exciting range of MA programmes based in Canterbury and Paris. In April 2011, we hosted a major international conference in Paris on ‘Influence'. Roughly half of our research students opt to register for a co-tutelle – a process leading to the award of a PhD from Kent and a doctorate from a French institution. Students who undertake their research entirely in Canterbury benefit from the cosmopolitan atmosphere at the UK's European University.
Language speaking
Every year, a considerable number of French nationals and native speakers of other foreign languages follow our postgraduate courses, while European exchange students who come to Kent as undergraduates often stay on to do graduate work.
We are involved in the Erasmus and Tempus networks and we also have a team of foreign-language lectors who combine undergraduate teaching with study for a Kent higher degree or with writing a dissertation for their home universities. Postgraduate dissertations in French Studies at the University of Kent may be written in English or in French. The University of Kent also offers language training, particularly in English, for overseas postgraduates.
Training
The Graduate School offers all postgraduates in the School of European Culture and Languages a wide-ranging programme of training in transferable skills. The School provides training workshops for postgraduate students with teaching responsibilities, bringing together postgraduates from all our subject areas. Research students may gain further academic experience by giving talks at the Centre for Modern European Literature research seminars. Postgraduates in the School of European Culture and Languages also organise their own annual international conference and edit and contribute to Skepsi, the School's postgraduate online journal of European thought.
World-leading research
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the performance of French at the University of Kent was ranked 7th in the United Kingdom, with a high proportion of our research publications judged to be first-rate (world-leading or internationally excellent). Backed by strong institutional support, our group continues to make an assertive and original contribution to French studies in the UK. Our research activities are given a markedly international dimension by publications, conference papers and public lectures in mainland Europe, USA, Australia and elsewhere, as well as a range of collaborative ventures.
Strong publishing Culture
Recent books published by colleagues at Kent include: The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust (Thomas Baldwin); The Picture as Spectre in Diderot, Proust, and Deleuze (Thomas Baldwin); Subjectivity and Otherness: A Philosophical Reading of Lacan (Lorenzo Chiesa); Le Grand Transit Moderne: Mobility, Modernity and French Naturalist Fiction (Larry Duffy); The Libertine's Nemesis: The Figure of the ‘Prude' in Crébillon ‘fils', Richardson, Laclos and Sade (James Fowler); New Essays on Diderot (ed James Fowler); Redefining Regional French: Koinéization in Northern France (David Hornsby); France/China: Intercultural Imaginings (Alex Hughes); Impressionism (Jon Kear); Picasso and Apollinaire: The Persistence of Memory (Peter Read); Guillaume Apollinaire, Correspondance avec les artistes, 1903-1918 (co-ed Peter Read); Giacometti Critical Essays (co-ed Peter Read); Les Dessins de Guillaume Apollinaire (co-ed Peter Read); Literature, Philosophy, Nihilism: The Uncanniest of Guests (Shane Weller); Modernism and Nihilism (Shane Weller); The Flesh in the Text (eds T Baldwin, J Fowler, S Weller).
Graduate Diploma
Kent's series of Graduate Diplomas provides a Pre-Master's route for international students – our Graduate Diplomas focus on developing your academic subject knowledge for postgraduate study, while improving your academic skills and English Language proficiency. On successful completion of the Diploma and through meeting the University's rules of progression, you are guaranteed entry onto a number of programmes within French. please email us: premasters@kent.ac.uk
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