Research in the Department of French at King’s College London was rated outstanding in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Judging by the proportion of our research placed in the top two categories we were equal first among UK French departments; and we were second nationally (just behind Oxford) for work placed in the top category – research judged to be ‘world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour.’In recent years we have also won substantial external funding from bodies such as the AHRC, HERA, Leverhulme Trust and LCACE.

While our research collectively is distinguished by a commitment to the full chronological range of French literary studies, and shows a consistent emphasis on some of the traditional research activities of the discipline (such as textual editing and archival research), the Department also has significant research strengths in some of the more recently developed areas of French Studies, such as:

• French politics and history
• Postcolonial / francophone studies
• French cinema and visual culture
• Modern French thought and contemporary French philosophy