Beyond Balzac and baguettes, the French and Francophone Studies program at the University of Connecticut has changed. While continuing to cherish and study France’s great literary and intellectual tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages, our program has also kept pace with the rapid developments in the discipline in the past few years: an increased focus on the place of culture in the study of literature; the strengthening of an interdisciplinary approach; the crucial role played by French-speaking cultures outside of the French “hexagon;” and last but not least, the necessary responses to the demands of the global economy.

Our overall objective is to make studying French at UConn part of a total experience that ranges from content-based and interactive language-acquisition to performing in a contemporary play; from reading classic novels of French literature in Storrs, CT, to participating in an intercultural conference in Dakar, Senegal; from working on a translation for a course in  Business French, to studying at the Sorbonne and taking part in daily life in Paris.

UConn’s French and Francophone Studies Program is designed to accommodate a wide array of students:  French majors as well as double-majors from any other discipline in the Arts, the Sciences and the Humanities; students planning to teach at the high school or college level as well as students whose objective is to work in corporations or in non- profit international organizations. Students can enter the Program either at the very beginning, through our language program or by entering upper-level courses upon their arrival at UConn.