Bonjour, buongiorno !
Thank you for your interest in our Doctoral Programs in both French & Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison! Please explore our website to see a selection of course offerings from previous semesters, important information about funding, faculty and graduate student profiles, and program features that distinguish the Department of French and Italian at the UW from all others.
The Department of French & Italian at the UW has long been an internationally recognized program for excellence in research and scholarship, for the strength of its curriculum, and for the quality of its doctorates. In both French & Italian, graduate faculty members cover each major century of literature, as well as an impressive array of theoretical backgrounds and interdisciplinary relationships. Many of our faculty are affiliates in other departments as well, such as Religious Studies (Pr. Jelena Todorovic), German (Pr. Florence Vatan), and African Cultural Studies (Prs. Névine El Nossery and Vlad Dima). Our graduate students pursue PhD Minors in Second Language Acquisition, Gender & Women’s Studies, Comparative Literature, among others!
Recently, our graduates have secured positions in both tenure-track and teaching-track academic positions, as secondary school educators, and in the corporate world:
2018 Current Position
Jennifer Morgan – French Ph.D. Admissions Consultant, Spark Admissions
Carla Cornette – Italian Ph.D. Lecturer, Penn State Universtity
Sarah Forzley – French Ph.D. Upper School French Teacher, Community Sch.
Nathan Germain – French Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor, Providence College
Tessa Sermet – French Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Lake Forest College
Jan Starczewski – French Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor, Allegheny College
2017 Current Position
Carlo Annelli – Italian Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Truman State University
Daniele Forlino – Italian Ph.D. Lecturer, Southern Methodist University
Redouane Khamar – French Ph.D. Assistant Professor, New Jersey City University
Sara Mattavelli – Italian Ph.D. Lecturer, College of William and Mary
Kathleen Prantil – Italian Ph.D. Senior Lecturer, Florida State University
Caitlin Yocco-Locascio – French Ph.D. Instructional Design Proj Mgr, Morgan Stanley
Graduate students at the UW have access to one of the most comprehensive library systems in the nation, if not the world! Memorial Library, the hub for the humanities and social sciences, holds thousands of foreign language volumes (both primary and secondary source), journals, flims, and other resources available for your coursework and research pursuits. Graduate students in French & Italian also benefit from research and reference librarian services at Memorial Library. Memorial Library is also a pillar in the humanities hub of campus, in walking distance to the Center for the Humanities (CH), Institute for Research in the Humanities (IRH), and the Wisconsin Historical Society. These centers and institutes propose an active series of presentations, seminars, public readings, and professional development events for graduate students.
As a graduate student in French & Italian, you can also take advantage of the department’s office spaces in Van Hise Hall, home to all language programs on campus. Conference rooms, dedicated office space, mail services, and a dedicated computer lab with large screens and docks, all together create a collegial and professional atmosphere for your teaching, research, and development. Finally, as a student of the graduate program, you are a member of the Graduate Association of French & Italian Students (GAFIS) which has for over 30 years served as a student-run organization that works in close contact with faculty to innovate and develop the graduate program, represents FRIT grads for campus-wide initiatives, and hosts a graduate student symposium held in the Spring of each academic year.