The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers research strengths and opportunities for PhD supervision across all periods of French and Francophone literature and visual culture, French thought and modern French history and politics.
We provide formal, subject-specific training and individual guidance on research methods, writing research proposals, applying for funding and presenting research papers.
Current postgraduate research students are working on topics across the whole range of French studies, and many of our recent PhD graduates have gone on successfully to academic posts or postdoctoral fellowships.
Most recent REF rankings: Research in French, German and Spanish - research impact rated 87.5% at ‘world leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent’ (3*) and at 100% for ‘world leading’ (4*) research environment (REF 2021).
Current number of academic staff: 11 permanent (all research active).
Current number of students: 11
Recent staff publications:
- The Unbridled Tongue: Babble and Gossip in Renaissance France
- Thinking Cinema with Proust
- Roland Barthes and Film
- Our Civilizing Mission: The Lessons of Colonial Education
- Figurations of the Feminine in the Early French Women's Press, 1758-1848
- Marcelle Gauvreau, Lettres au Frère Marie-Victorin. Correspondance sur la sexualité humaine
- Antonin Artaud: The Scum of the Soul
- The Calendar in Revolutionary France - Perceptions of Time in Literature, Culture, Politics
- The French Revolution Effect
- Republic of Islamophobia
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Current research projects:
- Casts, Imprints and Traces in Modern and Contemporary Art
- Deviant Speech in the Early Modern Period
- Algerian women's writing
- Representations of the Detective in Nineteenth-Century France
- World History as World Court: The Theatrical Origin of Human Rights
- Translating French psychoanalyst Pierre Fédida
- French Nietzscheanisms
- The Politics of Racism in France
- Colonial Education
- Québécois film
- Post-1968 French feminist film
Course study environment
As a research student, you will have designated primary and secondary supervisors. You will work closely with your designated primary supervisor, seeing them regularly, and benefit from feedback from other staff members including your secondary supervisor. You are strongly encouraged to attend research seminars and research-related events in the department and beyond. There are multiple opportunities to gain experience in the presentation and dissemination of your research and to exchange ideas with fellow students and members of staff.
We offer a dedicated study space for our postgraduate research students in the Virginia Woolf building, part of the campus centred on the Strand. You will benefit from funds to subsidise student attendance at conferences, and to contribute towards research costs. In the area of French studies we have exchanges at graduate level with the Université de Paris Nanterre and the Ecole Normale Supérieure Lyon.
Postgraduate training
Training for postgraduate research students is offered at various levels throughout PhD registration, including, at King’s, the courses and sessions offered by the Department, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the Centre for Doctoral Studies and the King’s Language Centre. You also benefit from training is offered by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership and the Institute of Modern Languages Research of the University of London. Research training will include a range of different kinds, including research ethics and integrity, bibliographic and referencing skills, the opportunity to learn or improve language skills, career support, job applications, networking, working with community partners, and much more.
More information can be found here.
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