Graduate
Programs Overview
With its strong interdisciplinary focus and located in a city with a rich cultural life, the University of Pittsburgh’s French and Italian graduate programs offer a higher education experience like no other academic institution this side of the Atlantic.
Small by design, the programs allow students to work closely with individual faculty mentors to customize their own curriculum or to investigate specialized topics in a tutorial setting.
The numbers tell the story: There are eight full-time faculty members in French and four in Italian, all of whom can easily work with each of the 32 students during various stages of their study. Moreover, almost 25 of those students hold either non-teaching fellowship awards or serve as teaching assistants (TAs) or teaching fellows (TFs). Read the full program description.
Courses of Study
The department offers a variety of MA degree programs in French and Italian, a PhD with MA en route in French Literature and a course of study leading to the PhD in French Literature–with some unique opportunities that few universities provide.
Graduate Study Abroad
MA and PhD candidates in French are eligible to spend and extended periods (usually one year) abroad through graduate student exchanges that our department maintains with the Université de Paris-X (Nanterree), the Université de Tours, and the Institut Bourguiba, Tunis.
These programs permit students each year to work as lecteurs d’anglais and to take courses to improve skills or to conduct research while continuing to receive stipendiary support.