French (MPhil / PhD)

At MPhil/PhD level we aim for students to make the transition into fully fledged, independent academic researchers, with the skills necessary to present their research orally as well as in writing, in addition to pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. Such independence is achieved through good scholarship, which includes original thought, the proper use of references, background material, methodology and accountable reporting procedures; it is these priorities that we aim to impart to our students.

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation. The MPhil thesis is not more than 60,000 words; the PhD thesis is not more than 100,000 words. The thesis requirements for a practice-based project vary according to the nature of the research and can be discussed with the admissions tutors. Both the MPhil and the PhD are assessed by a viva voce examination.

At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research.
Modern Languages and Linguistics achieved 100% for a research environment conducive to producing research of the highest quality, while 73% of our research was recognised as world-leading or internationally excellent. We are able to provide supervision in most aspects of French language, literature and culture, including: the Renaissance; classicism; the Enlightenment; literature from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century; travel literature; the fantastic; literature and the visual arts; literary criticism; gender studies; history of French thought; contemporary literature; French linguistics; bilingualism; French cinema; colonial and contemporary French history. Supervision in interdisciplinary subjects is also possible.