College: College of Letters and Science
Designation: Department
Majors and degrees offered: M.A., Ph.D. in French; M.A., Ph.D. in Italian; M.F.S in French Studies
Other: Ph.D. Minors in French, and in Italian
Faculty: Professors Songolo (chair), Berg, Bousquet, Buccini, Busby, Caulkins, Cravens, Debaisieux, Goodkin, Langer, Magnan, Miernowski, Rumble, Tochon, Vila, Winspur; Associate Professors Jenson, Livorni, Menechella; Assistant Professors Armbrecht, El-Nossery, Phillips-Court.
The Department of French and Italian offers a program of study leading to the Master of Arts and the Ph.D. degrees, as well as the Master of French Studies, a terminal degree. The department also offers a capstone certificate in French studies for students not currently enrolled in a UW-Madison graduate degree program; applicants are admitted as Special students through the Division of Continuing Studies (see www.dcs.wisc.edu/capstone). The department is one of the largest of its kind in the United States and offers a first-rate faculty in all the areas of French, Francophone, and Italian literature and culture. The program is organized so as to take advantage of the quality and range of the faculty. A Wisconsin Ph.D. will have the ability to teach not only a very focused topic of research, but also much of the French or Italian literary tradition.
The Department offers a wide array of courses and seminars each semester, providing a fairly even distribution across the various literary periods in most academic years. Courses typically meet two or three times a week and are quite broad in focus, generally exploring well-defined periods or genres, while seminars are held once a week for two hours and take up narrower topics in greater depth. Both the offerings and the requirements of the French and the Italian Ph.D. programs are designed to give students not only the tools necessary for specialization, but also an excellent knowledge of these extremely rich literary traditions.
Strong emphasis is placed on the practice of the languages. French and Italian are the usual languages of instruction in graduate courses and seminars. The Department offers possibilities for international stay through exchange programs and further promotes the use of French and Italian through lectures, films, theater, and events at the French House.
The Department of French and Italian has a fine job placement record, enhanced not only by its quality and visibility but also by its students’ solid foundation in the two literary traditions, increasingly rare among North American literature programs.
By any measure, the variety and quality of the faculty in French and Italian are first-rate. The faculty includes senior professors of considerable national prominence, and many faculty who have already made a mark on their respective fields.
On the French side there are usually two faculty members in most areas of French continental literature and francophone literature, and in French language teaching methodology and second language acquisition. In Italian, the program is one of the largest outside of Italy, comprising scholars in all major fields of Italian literature from the Middle Ages to the present, as well as in film and linguistics.
The historical interplay between French and Italian culture is also a fact of the intellectual life of the department, as students and faculty alike exchange ideas and information, and collaborate on projects especially in the earlier periods. In addition to their strong publication record, the department faculty have had a long history of editing journals (Italica, Dante Studies, Modern Language Journal, L'Anello che non tiene), and the graduate students host an annual conference that includes graduate students from midwestern universities such as Northwestern, Chicago, and Minnesota. The faculty, present and past, includes presidents of the Modern Language Association, the Midwestern Modern Language Association, the International Courtly Literature Society, the American Association of Teachers of Italian, the Medieval Association of the Midwest, the American Boccaccio Association, and the African Literature Association. The department continues to be exceptionally active and visible, both nationally and internationally.
The successful completion of the Ph.D. degree enables the student to teach and conduct research in various areas of French, Francophone, and Italian literature, language, and civilization at the college or university level. The M.A. degree, while representing an accomplishment in its own right, is an integral part of the Ph.D. program. The graduate program is designed to train future scholars and teachers at the most advanced level. This focus on scholarship is combined with excellent pedagogical preparation, in the sense of both language teaching training and broad literary, cultural, and historical preparation.
The master of French studies is a professional degree separate from and complimentary to the graduate program in French and francophone literature. It is an interdisciplinary program combining advanced graduate-level course work in French language and culture with specialized expertise in one of six professional concentration areas: French and business, French and education, French and international education, French and European Union affairs, French and international development, and French and media/arts/cultural production. The program offers advanced training to prepare graduate and returning students for careers in business, government, nonprofit organizations, the arts, advertising, and the media. The M.F.S can be earned by completing a year of course work and a summer internship abroad.
Admission to the doctoral programs and competition for financial support are competitive. An applicant should be able to present a dossier including the following: an excellent undergraduate record with sufficient courses in French or Italian literature; evidence of a very good command of the French or Italian language (preferably, an extended stay in the respective country); Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores; strong letters of recommendation; and a thoughtful, intelligent, and well-written personal statement. The department requests that a sample of writing (an essay or paper in French or Italian) be included with the application.
For more information: Graduate Secretary, Department of French and Italian, 612 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706; 608/262-6971; ampalm@wisc.edu;
Department Web site: http://frit.lss.wisc.edu/frit/;
Master of French studies program: http://pfmp.wisc.edu/.