��ɫ��Ƶ

French Studies is a research-based department where students learn French and immerse themselves in the diversity of francophone cultures through literature.

The Department of French Studies’ mission is to conduct innovative research in the arts and humanities while maintaining a high-quality student learning experience. Critical thinking and Diversity constitute the backbones of the department in both teaching and research. Critical thinking is a double movement. It considers a question from multiple perspectives, be that class, culture, gender, race and sex, but also examines the assumptions underlying the question itself.

Our mission, then, is to enhance students’ awareness of diversity and to build empathy toward the marginalized members of our societies through the critical reading of French and Francophone literatures, all while improving their proficiency in French. Through our commitments to the diversification of our curriculum content and our faculty, we aim to attract increasingly diverse student cohorts (students from economically challenged backgrounds, queer students, racialized students, disabled students) that more adequately reflect the heterogeneity of Canadian society.

Historically, the Department of French Studies has always performed strongly in terms of research. Existing research by tenured and tenure-track members of our unit spans a variety of disciplines and methodologies. This research includes the interdisciplinary field of Book culture and bibliodiversity; the emergence of nationalism in post-revolutionary Haiti through an appropriation of “Indigeneity”; environmental ethics and activism in Indigenous film and literature; black feminist literature in Quebec; research-creation; translation; Medical Humanities on socio-cultural and inter-generational approaches to aging and dying; the French Renaissance and the history of books; autobiographical trends in the twentieth century French novel and theater; and political modalities in Quebec contemporary writings. Moreover, our instructors’ research’s interests regularly cross paths, creating a cohesive research network in the department.

Despite its modest size, the Department of French Studies remains engaged in several emerging field in Humanities, such as Environmental Indigenous activism, Post- and Decolonial Botany, Ecofeminism and Black Studies, Publishing and Degrowth Studies, etc. At the intersection of those fields, an emerging area of research interest for the unit is the relationship between literature and the environment. Furthermore, our instructor’s research interests often lead to new courses in their fields. Because global warming is becoming an increasingly pressing issue, this field is currently restructuring itself, with scholars looking to building bridges between the European tradition of Ecopoetics (which studies the shaping of natural ecosystems through literature and its representations) and the North American tradition of Ecocriticism (that examines nature writing, literature in general and critical writing as counter-hegemonic discourses). In  light of our current research, our goal is to further strengthen this growing area of Humanities and Social Science research by attracting leaders in the field through a QNS position or a Canada Research Chair.

Given the number of Concurrent Education students majoring or minoring in French, and given the amount of courses devoted to French as Second Language Acquisition (FSL), it is our intention to keep on enhancing links between the department and the Faculty of Education by securing a joint position in FSL Pedagogy.

Some of our professors are affiliated with the Gender Studies Department. We also have a strong relationship with the Cultural Studies Program. Several professors in our Department are affiliated with this program, allowing them to supervise MA or PhD students. By fostering kinship with different departments and programs, we expand our reach and deepen our research activities.

Goals for the Next Five Years

·      Further develop interdisciplinary research collaborations, notably in the field of ecocriticism

·      Intensify Research in Second Language Acquisition pedagogy

French Studies is the only unit at Queen’s to operate in a language other than English on a daily basis. As such, we offer our students the opportunity to immerse themselves in a range of French language and culture through the unit’s various activities (lectures, committees, research and social events), while at the same time preparing them for a bilingual professional life. In the department’s vision, knowing French and Francophone cultures is key to the learning of the language.

French Studies is in an exceptional position due to its strong relationship with the Faculty of Education. Because most of our students are also enrolled in the Faculty of Education, we have a continuous stream of concentrators interested in our programs. This pairing of our strong training in French Studies with the exceptional training students receive in Concurrent Education provides them with a learning portfolio without parallel in Ontario. Considering the high demand for French teachers in Ontario, we are assured to maintain, if not increase, our enrolments.

In that regard, one of our two fourth-year capstone courses, FREN 499 “Apprentissage et enseignement du français langue seconde”, benefits tremendously from this partnership. Designed for fourth-year Concurrent Education students in our program, FREN 499 allows students to develop their autonomy and professional capacity through experiential learning. They plan and deliver FREN 150 tutorials and conduct independent research on a critical question in Second Language Acquisition. On the one hand, first-year students in our entry-level course FREN 150 take advantage from the dedication of Con Ed students who make them practice their spoken French and find their place in the Queen’s community. On the other hand, fourth-year students benefit from the unique combination of a Second Language Acquisition research seminar and teaching practicum that gives them the opportunity to develop their personal teaching practice at the same time they learn evidence-based methods for teaching language.

Experiential learning is also an important component of the department’s teaching philosophy. As such we offer students opportunities to immerse themselves in Francophone environments through the Explore or Ontario / Rhône-Alpes programs. We have also designed coursework that offers them professional experiences and opportunities to develop their skills and build their capacity for autonomous decision-making.

During their final year, students take a capstone literature seminar, FREN 498 during which they get first-hand experience organizing an academic symposium at which they present their independent research. This student conference, which features all fourth-year students majoring in French Studies, serves as a showcase for our programs. This course aims to build students’ capacity to carry out independent research.  

Goals for the next five years

·    Continue to diversify our curriculum, in line with recommendations 21 and 23 of the TRC Task Force final report and recommendation 16 of the PICRDI report

·     Create a new position joint appointed with Concurrent Education in French as a Second Language (FSL)

Our commitments to the community unfold in several areas: equity, diversity, inclusion and indigeneity; the Kingston community as a whole and its Francophone community; and internationalization.

We acknowledge that ��ɫ��Ƶ is situated on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory. In recognizing this fact, the Department of French Studies seeks to actively promote and pursue collaborations with Indigenous communities in both research and teaching, to offer courses in Francophone Indigenous literature and to include Indigenous knowledge throughout its current curriculum, such as Québec literature courses.

The department promotes equity, diversity and inclusion in all aspects, specifically in its efforts to recruit racialized and other faculty from underrepresented groups. As the designated steward of the Michener Visitors Funds, designed to bring distinguished Francophone Canadians to Queen’s, we wish to use this important fund to promote diversity, prioritizing racialized and/or Indigenous artists and writers. We are also in the process of changing the name of the department to a more inclusive one, to further reflect these commitments.

As a French Studies department in Kingston, we think it is essential to build collaborations with the Francophone high schools and community organizations in the area, notably the Centre Culturel Frontenac (CCF), which is a Kingston based Francophone cultural hub promoting art and culture in French. The Department is also fostering a relationship with the Kingston Canadian Film Festival to pair films from the festival with courses in the curriculum. Furthermore, because some students enrolled in FREN499 are already teaching in various Kingston schools, the unit already has some footprint in the community, but its impact can be expanded through the development of mutually beneficial activities with local francophone high schools.

In order to accomplish these goals, the Department of French Studies commits to the following:

·   Expanding our community-based collaborations to include the Kingston-based Centre culturel Frontenac as well as local francophone high schools

·   Intensify collaborations with the Ambassade de France to diversify exchange possibilities (as student and as English tutor in France), offer learning opportunities such as the Choix Goncourt Canada and more.

Organize a public event per year promoting Francophone diversity

Finally, in line with one of the Queen’s Strategic Framework  pillars, the Department seeks to accelerate its internationalization activities, through both teaching and research collaborations. This builds upon our existing collaborative scholarship networks in Renaissance studies, the history of books, twentieth century theatre and the history of publishing with France, in Caribbean studies, and in Indigenous studies through the transnational conference on Indigenous cinema across the Americas.