Department of French
Department of French

Funding

Doctoral Program

The Department of French is committed to providing full funding to all doctoral students for the duration of the PhD degree. The award package comprises a combination of graduate teaching assistantships (GTAs) and fellowships, is guaranteed for up to 6 years, and covers tuition, fees, and comprehensive health insurance. It also includes an annual stipend of $30,000 for basic living expenses in Charlottesville.

This funding package guarantees graduate students two years of full funding with no teaching duties during the first and fourth years of the program.  Beginning in their second year, and during the third, fifth, and sixth years (if a sixth year is necessary), graduate students teach one course per semester in the undergraduate French language program. We also offer advanced graduate students the opportunity to teach a literature, culture, or film course in the major/minor sequence. A limited number of teaching positions are also available during the summer session, both in Charlottesville and on our summer study abroad program in Lyon. 

Once they have completed all coursework and exams, doctoral students in good standing are eligible for a variety of internal research fellowships and grants, including the GSAS Arts and Humanities Research Council Grants that support work over the summer.  The Department, Graduate School, and the Office of the VP for Research also regularly fund student participation in a variety of professional conferences, institutes and seminars, including the bi-annual Dartmouth Institute for French Cultural Studies and the Geneva Summer School in French Literary and Historical Studies. Students regularly earn scholarships to enroll in summer classes at the Rare Book School, hosted by UVa, and have also recently participated in summer institutes run by the EHESS in Paris and the program in gender and psychoanalysis co-sponsored by Northwestern U. and the Sorbonne Nouvelle. The Department of French also encourages students to participate in longer term study abroad programs, whether through its established teaching exchange programs with partner universities in Paris and Lyon, through the university’s graduate exchange programs with the ENS and EHESS in Paris, or through externally funded fellowships like the Chateaubriand, the Fulbright,  the Mary Isabel Sibley Fellowhip, the Phi Beta Kappa Walter J. Jensen award, and the Bourse Jeanne Marandon. Graduate students may also consult with the Office of Citizen Scholar Development, which often has information on relevant funding opportunities.

The University of Virginia's Office of Graduate and Post-Graduate Affairs publishes an extensive list of funding opportunities and resources for graduate students, which may be consulted here.

Please note that all forms of departmental financial aid, including teaching appointments, are granted and reviewed annually. In addition, the renewal of teaching appointments is based on demonstrated teaching competence and continued satisfactory progress in the graduate program.

Master’s Program

The regular MA and the BA/MA programs do not currently provide funding.  Students pursuing the pedagogy MA receive a graduate teaching assistantship in their second year, which includes a stipend, tuition, fees, and comprehensive health insurance.

Students in these programs are encouraged to look for external funding using the links above and below.

UVA resources for Graduate Study

External sources of Funding