Doctor of Philosophy - French

A PhD in French enables students to undertake a substantial piece of supervised research in the subject that makes an original contribution to knowledge and is worthy of publication.

Over the duration of the PhD, students produce an original piece of research of up to 100,000 words, in English or in French.

Previous doctoral theses have included ‘Deleuze and Anti-Humanism: The Sense of Deleuze's Spinozism’, ‘Haptic Experience in the Writings of Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot and Michel Serres’, ‘Le Livre Fermé: The Fortune of Rousseau's Educational ideas in the Primary Schools of England and France during the 1960s’, ‘Photobiographies: pour une écriture de notation de la vie (Roland Barthes, Denis Roche, Annie Ernaux)’, and ‘De l'abject et du sublime: Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett’.

The Department of Modern Languages offers supervision from world-class academics with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, who are able to support and guide students through their research. Students' progress is carefully monitored to ensure that they are on track to produce a thesis valued by the academic community. Throughout the programme, students are able to attend and contribute to research seminars, workshops, and research and transferable skills training courses.