About the Department
The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures offers programs in French, Italian, Spanish literatures of both Europe and the Americas, and Renaissance and Early Modern Romance Studies. These programs include the study of literary history, established and current critical methodologies, literary theory and analysis, Romance philology, the sociology of literature, literature and history, cultural studies, films and foreign language acquisition and pedagogy. The Department also regularly offers Portuguese language and literature, the second of which focuses on readings from the Luso-Brazilian tradition. The Portuguese Government sends our Visiting Professor from the University of Lisbon to teach a literature course each year. In addition, our program offers a growing curriculum in Catalan, including a two-year language and culture program and advanced courses taught by the Joan Coromines Visiting Chair.
Holdings in Romance Language and Literatures at Regenstein Library are rich and extensive. A vast collection of printed materials, manuscripts and rare books, journal holdings, databases and microfilm sets are complemented by electronic corpora of primary texts. Several of the latter are produced in toto or in part at the University of Chicago, including ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language), Italian Women Writers, Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, and Montaigne Studies.
Students in the Department are provided opportunities to broaden their knowledge in a variety of ways. Each language program offers students several programs for study and research abroad, and the Department invites distinguished scholars and writers from the United States and abroad to lecture and to teach. The France-Chicago Center- a Franco-American research institution dedicated to fostering contact among French and American students, professors, and professionals - organize and sponsor conferences and colloquia, provide fellowships and travel grants, fund visiting faculty members from France, and organize lectures. Professor Vincent Descombes, from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, a regular visiting professor, teaches a course each year in the Spring Quarter.
The Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Modern Italian Studies enables the Department to invite a prominent visitor from Italy each year, past visiting professors have included Laura Barile, Gianni Celati, and Gianpiero Brunetta. The Susan and Donald Mazzoni Lecture and Seminar Series culminates in the publication of a volume of graduate student essays. Romance Languages and Literatures also benefits from faculty collaboration in the committees on Cinema and Media Studies, History of Culture, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, and Social Thought; along with the centers for Gender Studies, Latin American Studies, and Race, Politics and Culture. Each year, the Edward Larocque Tinker Visiting Professorship in Latin American and Iberian Studiesbrings prominent scholars and other professionals to the University for research and teaching. We have brought poets, playwrights, novelists, and distinguished critics such as Nicanor Parra, Jorge Edwards, Javier Lasarte (Venezuela), Luciano Garcia Lorenzo (Spain), and Anthony Stanton (Mexico).
The Department has developed a unique program of theoretical and practical teacher training in Romance languages and literatures. All Ph.D. students are funded with fellowships that allow them to gain teaching experience in the undergraduate language program - first as course assistants (lectors), then as autonomous lecturers once their own course work is completed. This system allows for a high degree of professional training and competitive funding, without distracting students from their graduate studies. Our one-year Master's program is designed to familiarize students with the literary history and major works of one or more of the Romance languages, and to provide the critical tools for literary and cultural analysis. Students with an M.A. degree from another institution generally enter the Ph.D. program directly. Ph.D. students enjoy a wide range of specialized department seminars on literature, literary theory, Romance linguistics, and bibliographic research. They are encouraged to expand their research and course work into other literatures, departments, and disciplines.
An innovative program is now being developed to increase the number of graduate-level courses co-taught by experts from different languages who are investigating topics that extend beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. This initiative has led to the establishment of the Department's Renaissance and Early Modern program, which will begin accepting graduate candidates in 2008-2009. Students are also encouraged to participate in and coordinate graduate workshops. Some of the current workshops include Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean; European and American Avant-Gardes; Gay and Lesbian Studies; Gender and Society; Latin American History; Mass Culture; Medieval Studies; Modern France; Poetics Workshop; Renaissance Workshop; Reproduction of Race and Racial Ideologies Workshop; Theater: Text, Society, and Performance among others. The Department features its own workshop on Western Mediterranean Culture.
Upon completion of the PhD., students have had great success in finding tenure-track positions at such institutions as Wesleyan University. The University of Pennsylvania, The University of Colorado, The University of Oregon, The State University of New York at Buffalo, Syracuse University, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand), and other excellent colleges and universities.