French (Research)

A PhD, also known as a doctorate, is a requirement for a career as an academic or researcher. In addition, it has become a qualification valued by many employers who recognise the skills and commitment a PhD requires. Employers also recognise that a PhD indicates excellent research capabilities, discipline and communication skills.

Over the duration of the PhD, you produce an original piece of research of up to 100,000 words, in English or French. Previous doctoral theses have included ‘Deleuze and Anti-Humanism: The Sense of Deleuze's Spinozism’, ‘Haptic Experience in the Writings of Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot and Michel Serres’, ‘Photobiographies: pour une écriture de notation de la vie (Roland Barthes, Denis Roche, Annie Ernaux)’, ‘De l'abject et du sublime: Georges Bataille, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett’, 'The Regulation of Female Fertility and the Maternal Body in French Medical and Literary Writing, 1870-1914’, La Corruption dans le Roman Francophone du XIXème au XXIème Siècle’,  'The Representation of Women Musicians in French, English and German Literature of the Nineteenth Century’, 'Être et responsabilité. Phénoménologie et poésie de Jean-Louis Chrétien’, and 'Domestic Architecture, Literature and the Sexual Imaginary in Europe, 1850-1930’.

The University of Kent’s Language Centre offers supervision from world-class academics with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, able to support and guide you through your research. Your progress is carefully monitored to ensure that you are on track to produce a thesis valued by the academic community. Throughout your programme, you are able to attend and contribute to research seminars, workshops, and research and transferable skills training courses, many of which benefit from the broader context of the Research Network for Languages, Linguistics and Literatures. You are also likely to gain experience teaching.

You may be eligible for a fully-funded PhD scholarship to support your studies with us. For a list of scholarships available, please see our postgraduate funding page.