Program focus is to encourage young scholars to challenge and apply plural theoretical perspectives while acquiring in depth insight into the knowledge of varieties of French and literatures of the Francophone world.

Because of its location in the Greater Toronto Area, the doctoral program in Francophone studies at York University provides an ideal setting to engage in the study of French and its diverse cultural, linguistic and literary manifestations. The very composition of the Francophone communities in Ontario and Canada, of diverse origins and possessing a bilingual, if not multilingual, education justifies the study of that diversity and of its unifying elements.

The openness of this PhD program to areas of research with interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary content in the fields of translation and public and international affairs allows young scholars not only to acquire essential research and teaching skills, but to participate in the rich research culture of York University.

Choose York:

Our program, offered entirely in French, has special relevance for Ontario's Francophone communities because of its focus on issues related to education in French in a minority setting or to bilingual education programs.

Your academic training and learning experience will be enhanced by innovative curricula and research opportunities featuring connexions with other disciplines such as translation, law, history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, cognitive science, and public affairs.

You will develop life long intellectual relationships with young scholars and established researchers from a wide range of academic and cultural backgrounds.

In your research, you will be encouraged to investigate current issues raised by major cultural, artistic, societal, political and linguistic movements that have contributed to the state of the French-speaking world today or that are underway in the francophone communities of major urban centres such as Montreal and Toronto.

You will have the opportunity to join internationally known research centres to master skills in corpus analysis, in the edition of manuscript and the development of databases, bibliographies and e-journals at the Centre de documentation sur le Maghreb littéraire at the Keele campus, and on the Glendon campus, Le centre de recherche sur le contact linguistique, Le groupe de recherche en Études francophones and le Groupe de recherche sur la traduction et les échanges culturels.