The Ohio State University
. www.osu.edu
Help • Campus Map • Find People • Webmail • Search Ohio State •
French and Italian at The Ohio State University

Graduate Studies

Graduate Certificate in Francophone & Post-Colonial Studies Program
Secure Access PhD Student Course Grid

see also Ph.D. Program in French

The Graduate Certificate in Francophone and Postcolonial Studies is designed to offer a coherent and structured program of study to doctoral students whose principal focus is either metropolitan French literature or another discipline (Education, Women's Studies, Comparative Studies, History, etc.), but whose subsidiary interest is the imaginative writings and the cultures of the French speaking world. The certificate is not meant for students in French specializing in francophone literature.

The program will offer three geo-cultural areas of concentration:

Alternatively, students may choose to concentrate on a topic (for example women's writing, autobiography) that cuts across these regions.

Admission requirements

In accordance with the rules of the Department of French and Italian, admission of students to the program is the responsibility of the Departmental Certificate committee, which is made up of the French Graduate Studies chair and two [francophone studies] faculty members.

Applicants will generally be expected to write a letter of application stating reasons and goals for undertaking the certificate program, and of a plan of courses that meets the program's requirements.

Applicants are expected to have been admitted to, and enrolled in, a Ph.D degree program in the university and to be in good standing in the home department and the Graduate School, that is, maintenance of a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.

(For students outside the Department of French and Italian) a good reading and speaking knowledge of French, to be determined by passing a special examination equivalent to French 572 administered by the department, and by an oral interview with a Certificate Committee representative.

Each student will have an adviser from the Certificate Committee.

General requirements

The Graduate School requires for the Graduate Certificate in Francophone and Post-Colonial Studies (as for all graduate certificates) a minimum of forty-five credit hours of graduate-level work. Twenty-two of these hours must be courses that are offered by the student's home department and that count towards the student's degree, and the remaining twenty-three hours must be taken in other departments.

For students in French, these remaining courses should be relevant to the program, and may be selected from a pre-approved list, and/or from additional courses (individual studies, or topics courses for example), as approved by the Certificate Committee in consultation with the student's adviser.

For students outside French, these remaining courses will be primarily francophone literature, culture and theory courses.

All students will be expected to take

Graduate Certificate Examinations Procedure

The final examination will take the form of an oral defense of the research paper.

The Graduate Studies Chair chairs the examination committee.

The Committee will normally consist of three members: the Graduate Studies Chair, the student’s adviser/area specialist, and a third faculty member. The certificate will be awarded only on completion of the Ph.D. The Graduate School will certify that the student has completed all the requirements pertaining to certificate programs.