Honors
The Department of Modern Languages offers an Honors program in all its majors: French, Italian, and Russian Studies. To be eligible, students must have a) completed at least six courses towards the major, not counting intermediate proficiency in the language; b) achieved a University cumulative GPA of 3.0 and a 3.25 cumulative average in major courses through the junior year. A student wishing to do honors work should seek out a departmental advisor willing to direct the honors paper. After receiving approval from this advisor, the student must apply in writing to the chair of the department for admission to the honors program, preferably before the beginning of the senior year.
An honors candidate enrolls in his/her major's "Honors Research Project" course (498) in the first semester of the senior year. If this course is completed successfully, the student enrolls in "Senior Honors Thesis" (499) in order to complete his/her research and write the thesis. All theses will have two or three readers: The advisor and one or two other faculty members chosen by the student with departmental approval. All readers must approve the thesis, which will then be submitted to the department in a timely fashion to meet the College's deadline. The student will present his/her final thesis to the department.
Recent theses include Delia Bucur’s study, “Camus et Wiesel: Témoins contre le Mal dans le monde,” and Marina Rouséva’s “Un vertigineux kaléidoscope: L’Amour dans le cinéma français de la réalité au rêve.”
Year of Study in Paris
Each year the Department of Modern Languages sponsors a full academic year of study in Paris (early-September to mid-June) in collaboration with the UMass Amherst French faculty and, beginning in September 2005, with Academic Programs International (www.academicintl.com). The program is not limited to French majors, but all applicants must have sufficient training in French (at least four or five semesters of successful college-level French, or equivalent) and the approval of their major department.
Our program is one of the least expensive ways to spend an academic year in Paris: the fee includes orientation, room, tuition, cultural activities and visits within and outside Paris, special courses and tutorials offered by the Resident Director in Paris, health and life insurance, and even a cell phone. Students enroll at Paris VII or other "facultés" of the University of Paris like Paris-Dauphine (specialized in management), the Cours de Civilisation Française at La Sorbonne, or at the Institut de Sciences Politiques (“Sciences Po”), according to their interests and abilities. In addition to formal course work, the intense artistic and cultural life of Paris offers an experience unequaled anywhere else in the world.