French

Interdisciplinary Studies

The Department is strongly committed to interdisciplinary initiatives and has been reorienting its program over the past years. The addition of cultural studies to literary studies has been enhanced by the hiring of Rhonda Garelick, a cultural and literary critic, and by the creation of CSC/WIT, "Word, Image, Text: Compartive Studies in Culture," an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the comparative analysis of literature and cinema.

Catherine Spencer has served as the co-director of the program since its inception in 1997. The department's recent offerings include courses such as "Bodies for Sale: Prostitution in Early Modern and Modern Europe (France and England); "Orientalism", a study of the representations of non-Western cultures in French art and literature from the 16th through the 20th centuries; and "Reading the City: Paris", an analysis of how modern and contemporary French literature and culture deploy urban history and myth.

Connecticut College offers students an unusually wide range of opportunities to explore a topic, issue or problem using the conceptual framework and tools of more than one academic discipline. Students may choose an established interdisciplinary major or design one in consultation with faculty advisers and the Committee on Student-Designed Interdisciplinary Majors and Minors.

Established interdisciplinary majors include: East Asian studies; comparative studies in culture: word, image, text; environmental studies; gender and women's studies; Latin American studies, medieval studies; neuroscience/psychobiology; and international relations.

Students in any major may also earn a certificate from one of the College's innovative interdisciplinary centers. Requirements for the certificate programs include a challenging combination of coursework, in-depth research and a funded summer internship in the U.S. or abroad.