RESEARCH PROFILE
- 2008 RAE National Ranking: Second.
- Current number of academic staff: 14 (all research active).
- Current number of students: 15.
- Recent publications:
- After Bataille: Sacrifice, Exposure, Community;
- Poisoned Words: Slander and Satire in Early Modern France;
- Martyrs to Love: Love and Death in Medieval French and Occitan Courtly Literature;
- Postcolonial Criticism: History, Theory and the Work of Fiction;
- The Politics of Racism in France;
- Literature & Material Culture in the Second Empire.
- Current research projects:
- The Literary City under Bourbon Absolutism;
- Fascism, the Left and Political Corruption;
- Legacies of French Theory;
- Revolutionary Time;
- Gossip and Nonsense in Renaissance France (AHRC funded);
- The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript (HERA funded);
- Queer Theory in France (AHRC funded);
- Medieval Literary Culture (AHRC funded).
KEY FACTS
Student destinations
Many of our recent PhD graduates have gone on to successful careers in academia. Other destinations include teaching, journalism, cultural management.
Head of group/division
Professor Simon Gaunt/Dr Johanna Malt
Duration
Expected to be MPhil two years FT, three years PT. PhD three years FT, four-six years PT, usually starting September.
Location
Strand Campus.
Year of entry 2013
Offered by
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of French
Closing date
None. However, candidates also making applications for AHRC or Graduate School funding (deadline 1st February 2012) must already have submitted an application to the programme via MyApplication' (please see postgraduate funding pages of KCL website for further details).
Intake
Approximately 4.
Fees
CONTACTS
Contact information
Postgraduate Officer, Centre for Arts & Sciences Admissions (CASA)
tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2736
fax: +44 (0) 20 7848 7200
Email
Website
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
Ranked second nationally in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008, our department offers research strengths in all periods of French literature, modern French history and politics, Francophone literature and French thought. There are several active research seminars and reading groups in which staff and research students participate.
We provide training and individual guidance on research methods, writing research proposals, applying for funding and presenting research papers. In conjunction with the Modern Language Centre, we recently established a pioneering programme of specialist training in advanced French language and pedagogy for graduate students, to help them prepare to teach French at university level and to publish their research in French.
Current students are working on topics across the whole range of French literary studies, and many of our recent PhD graduates have gone on successfully to academic posts or postdoctoral fellowships.
Staff interests associated with the research programme and its research groups
Interests:
19th-century literature.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 1832
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
17th- and 18th-century French and comparative literature; literary representations of the city in the Ancien Regime; economics and literature; Quebecois literature and film in relation to biculturalism; literary theory
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 1182
Fax:
+44 (0)20 7848 2720
Email:
Website:
Interests:
French early modern literature, history and thought.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 2464
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
The theory of literature from the 18th century to the present; Psychoanalysis; Queer Theory; French queer writing.
Tel:
+44 (0) 20 7848 1834
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Contemporary French politics; fascism; political corruption; history of the French labour movement; historiography of revolution.
Tel:
+44 (0) 20 7848 2800
Fax:
++ (0) 20 7848 2450
Email:
Website:
Interests:
20th-century French literature; critical theory, particularly Marxist theory and psychoanalysis; visual arts, including modernism, the avant-garde and contemporary art; surrealism.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 1830
Fax:
+44 (0)20 7848 2720
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Medieval French literature.
Tel:
+44 (0) 20 7848 1181
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Modern literature, film and thought in French; postcolonial and francophone literature, especially of and about the Maghreb; literary theory; comparative literature; and intellectual and cultural history, particularly in relation to censorship and freedom of expression. Current projects include work on Assia Djebar and notions of the literary; cultural memory and the 'dark continent'; representations and 'echoes' of the Algerian war of independence; and colonial education.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 1835
Fax:
+44 (0)20 7848 2720
Email:
Website:
Interests:
20th-century French and Francophone literature; post-war literary and critical theory; Bataille; Proust.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 2547
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
17th and 18th-century French and comparative literature.
Tel:
+44 (0) 20 7848 2136
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
Old French literature; medieval Occitan literature; textual criticism (editing medieval texts); modern critical theory.
Tel:
+44 (0)20 7848 2030
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
19th to 21st-century literature; women's writing; critical theory.
Tel:
+44 (0) 20 7848 1836
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
French language curriculum designed teaching; Lacanian psychoanalysis.
Tel:
+44 (0) 20 7848 7383
Fax:
Email:
Website:
Interests:
French and European political thought.
Tel:
+44 (0) 20 7848 1833
Fax:
+44 (0)20 7848 2450
Email:
Website:
ACADEMIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
General entry advice
Minimum 2:1 first degree, usually in French (or in a combined honours degree including French), followed by a taught master's degree with an overall grade of at least merit. Applications from candidates with other qualifications may be considered if relevant experience or equivalent qualifications can be demonstrated.
APPLYING TO KING'S
To apply for graduate study at King's you will need to complete our graduate online application form. Applying online makes applying easier and quicker for you, and means we can receive your application faster and more securely.
King's does not normally accept paper copies of the graduate application form as applications must be made online. However, if you are unable to access the online graduate application form, please contact the relevant admissions/School Office at King's for advice.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Before applying please consult the department's web pages to determine if we have a suitable research supervisor for your project. You will need to submit a sample of your written work (in English or French) of no more than 5,000 words in length and a research proposal of up to 2 sides in length (plus bibliography) along with your application. Applicants will normally be interviewed by two members of the department's staff, one of whom will be your prospective supervisor. Admission to our research programmes will initially be for the MPhil but we expect students to transfer to the PhD after an appropriate period, by agreement with their supervisor and the Departmental Postgraduate Admissions and Research Committee.
PERSONAL STATEMENT & SUPPORTING INFORMATION
No information required.
FUNDING
Up to two full AHRC studentships attached to the programme (home/EU applicants). The deadline for AHRC funding applications is expected to be in early 2012. Graduate School and School of Arts & Humanities studentships and bursaries (including for overseas applicants), self-funded.
Student profiles
French Research MPhil/PhD
I joined King’s when I was awarded a studentship by the College’s Annual Fund. This has been an incredible opportunity, allowing me to undertake my PhD in the best possible conditions. Succeeding as a PhD student today is more challenging than ever and requires a lot of multi-tasking: completing the thesis on time, giving presentations, attending conferences, getting papers published and teaching. In this context, King’s funding has been immensely helpful. Thanks to the studentship, I have been able to focus on my research about Francophone literature while devoting some time to other important activities, such as organising a postgraduate conference.
I have also greatly benefitted from the thriving research culture of the French Department and its supportive atmosphere. Not to mention the great advantages offered by King’s location, at the heart of London and close to the unparalleled resources of the Senate House and the British Library.
French Research MPhil/PhD
When I decided to write a doctorate, funded by the AHRC, I was attracted to the Department of French at King's as it is very much a dynamic, up-and-coming department with a broad range of interests, which helps me avoid becoming too intellectually insular.
I was also keen to base myself in London for the general cultural and social benefits, and more specifically for the academic resources available, inter alia the British Library and the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies which provide research training, as well as organising various conferences and seminars. King's itself also provides research training, as well as running a comprehensive range of computer courses, which as a self-confessed technophobe I have found especially helpful!
The helpful people at the School of Humanities also makes funding available for research students to improve their language skills, so I have been able to brush up my Polish through evening classes at the Modern Language Centre.
I intend to pursue a career in academia, and at King's I can take advantage of opportunities to teach and to help organise a seminar which will enhance my research profile and job prospects.