Minor Requirements: French and Francophone Studies

Minor Requirements – 42 Total Credits

The French and Francophone Studies Minor unites a diversity of disciplinary approaches to France while extending the notion of French and Francophone Studies beyond the specific territorial and linguistic boundaries of France and Parisian French. Relying on significant language training, courses in Francophone literature and culture (continental Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America) as well as in other disciplines, this minor will afford a synthetic view of the evolution and impact of French and Francophone cultural institutions. The majors most organically connected with this interdisciplinary curriculum are history, anthropology, art history, political science, film studies, and international relations, although students majoring in other disciplines may also minor in French and Francophone Studies. No more than 12 credits from non-Carleton off-campus study programs may be applied toward the minor. French 210 does not count for the French and Francophone Studies Minor.

French Language Requirement – Required 6 credits

  • FREN 204: Intermediate French or equivalent

Elective Courses – Required 36 credits

Group I: French and Francophone Literature and Culture – 24 credits

Four courses required, two of which must be at the 300 level

  • CCST 245: Meaning and Power: Introduction to Analytical Approaches in the Humanities
  • FREN 206: Francophone Emotions: Science and Culture
  • FREN 231: Paris: The Eras Tour
  • FREN 236: Francophone Cinema and the African Experience
  • FREN 240: Imagining North Africa: Arabs, Berbers, and Beurs
  • FREN 244: Contemporary France and Humor (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 245: Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 253: The French Revolution, Then and Now (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 256: French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Politics and Cultures in Contemporary France
  • FREN 259: French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
  • FREN 302: Creative Writing in French
  • FREN 303: That’s Entertainment!
  • FREN 308: France and the African Imagination (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 310: The Art of Scandal (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 336: Francophone Cinema and the African Experience
  • FREN 350: Middle East and French Connection (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 359: French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris
  • FREN 360: The Algerian War of Liberation and Its Representations (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 380: Comics: Sequence with Consequence

Group II: History and Art History – 6 credits

One course required

  • ARTH 140: African Art and Culture (not offered 2025-26)
  • ARTH 172: Modern Art: 1890-1945 (not offered 2025-26)
  • ARTH 236: Baroque Art (not offered 2025-26)
  • ARTH 245: Modern Architecture
  • ARTH 263: Architectural Studies in Europe Program: Prehistory to Postmodernism (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 254: French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: French Art in Context
  • HIST 137: Early Medieval Worlds in Transformation
  • HIST 139: Foundations of Modern Europe (not offered 2025-26)
  • HIST 141: Europe in the Twentieth Century
  • HIST 243: The Peasants are Revolting! Society and Politics in the Making of Modern France (not offered 2025-26)
  • HIST 244: The Enlightenment and Its Legacies
  • HIST 247: The First World War as Global Phenomenon
  • HIST 289: Gender and Ethics in Late Medieval France (not offered 2025-26)

Group III: Anthropology, Political Science, Media Studies – 6 credits

Once course required.

  • CAMS 219: African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition (not offered 2025-26)
  • EUST 159: “The Age of Isms” – Ideals, Ideas and Ideologies in Modern Europe (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 255: French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Islam in France: Historical Approaches and Current Debates (not offered 2025-26)
  • FREN 257: French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: The Culture of Activism in France
  • POSC 255: Post-Modern Political Thought (not offered 2025-26)
  • POSC 282: Terrorism and Counterterrorism (not offered 2025-26)
  • POSC 348: Strangers, Foreigners, and Exiles (not offered 2025-26)
  • POSC 352: Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville
  • POSC 359: Cosmopolitanism (not offered 2025-26)
  • SOAN 256: Africa: Representation and Conflict

Additional Departmental Notes

For students who wish to make the most of the French and Francophone Studies Minor, we strongly recommend taking classes that reflect the diverse geography of the French and Francophone world. For courses other than those in the French and Francophone Studies department, students may be expected to do source reading in French, but papers and exams will be written in English. Check with the department for other on- or off-campus courses that may count for the minor.