Graduate
Program Description
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 student 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).
Ranking
In the Diamond-Graham ranking (2000), Pitt ranked 15th among French graduate programs in the United States—an acknowledgement of the faculty and quality of graduate students our department recruits, educates, mentors, and places in academic jobs here and abroad.
Exchanges
The French program offers two graduate exchanges every year with the University of Paris X, Nanterre and the University of Tours. The programs are open to both MA and PhD students who serve as lecteur ou lectrice d’anglais at these universities.
Interdisciplinary Programs
Graduate students in French and in Italian have the option of obtaining graduate certificates in the following interdisciplinary programs: Center for West European Studies, Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Medieval/Renaissance Studies, University Center for International Studies, and Women’s Studies. Several of these programs offer graduate fellowships.
Careers
Many of our recent MA graduates in Italian have found desirable teaching positions in the United States and abroad. Our MAs have also consistently been accepted to some of the most prestigious PhD programs in the United States, including Harvard University, University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, and University of Pennsylvania.
Pitt’s recent PhD graduates in French teach or have taught full time at such institutions as Barnard College, Clarion University, Gettysburg College, Middlebury College, Fordham University, Ball State University, Rutgers University, Hood College, Utah State, Washington College, Florida State University, and the University of Glasgow. Every PhD graduate since 1984 is forging an academic career.