Welcome to FIT! Please read on for a general introduction to our undergraduate program, then follow the hyperlinks (or use the navigation bar to the right) for further, more detailed information.

The Department of French & Italian teaches these two languages, literatures and cultures at the 100, 200, 300, and 400 levels. It also offers a top-rated graduate program in French. The department is located on the third floor of the newly refurbished East Pyne Building, which also houses the University’s Language Resource Center, a 70 seat auditorium equipped for film projection, and many other state-of-the-art facilities.

There are 16 regular faculty members in the department; more than half of them are native speakers of French or Italian. They include scholars of international distinction in all the main branches of the subjects taught, from medieval literature to contemporary French and Italian film, as well as younger faculty of exceptional promise. All professors regularly teach undergraduate classes; class size is limited to 13 students in language-instruction courses and is only occasionally much larger in literature and other courses, facilitating close interaction both among students and between student and faculty. Some sections of language courses and a few precepts of advanced courses are taught by highly qualified lecturers and graduate-student instructors; in addition, distinguished visiting faculty from the US and abroad are frequently invited to teach special courses that supplement the department’s regular offerings.

Language courses in French and Italian range from beginners’ level to advanced. The standard 101-102-107 sequence is designed to bring students without previous knowledge of French or Italian to a level at which they can operate effectively in speaking, reading, and writing the foreign language. Students who have acquired elementary French in high school can be placed into an accelerated two-semester sequence (103-107). There are also intensive, double-credit courses in French and Italian in the spring semester (1027), and a separate sequence (105-108) for students having achieved a good basic command of French in high school. Once completed, any of these sequences fulfills the University’s foreign language requirement.

Language Placement Tests

Please note:

Students who were not able to complete the Language Placement Test in the summer may do so on Monday, September 8th. A make up online test will begin at 5:30 pm. The test is 60 minutes long, but students are advised to plan a total of two hours, in order to be able to read instructions and take the practice test before the actual placement test. The test sites will become unavailable at 10:30 pm.
To take the make up test, please follow the instructions below:

1.       After logging in to Blackboard, click the Course tab in the top frame
2.       In the Course Catalog module, click the Language Placement Tests link
3.       Click the Enroll button to the right of the appropriate language test site
4.       On the subsequent page, click the OK button. This will take you to the test site.

If you need assistance, please send e-mail to blackboard@princeton.edu or call (609) 258-0737

Students who scored a 4 or a 5 on the French or Italian Language AP test, or 740 or higher on the French or Italian Language SAT II test, have satisfied the University's foreign language requirement. A score of 6 or 7 on the higher-level IB test or a grade of B or higher on the British A-level exam also fulfills the requirement. Students who have fulfilled the requirement are invited to enroll into French or Italian courses at the 200 level or above. Students who did not take an AP or SAT II test, or earned scores below 4 on the AP or below 740 on the SAT II, must take the Placement Test online between July 15 and August 15, 2008 before enrolling into a French or Italian language class. Based on the results, students will be placed in FRE 101, 103, 105, 108 or in ITA 101, 104. The test is also open to any student (including non-departmental graduate students) who has not fulfilled the University language requirement in French or Italian and wishes to take a class. Students whose performance on the online Placement Test indicates that they are proficient in French or Italian and may be eligible to place out of the foreign language requirement, have to take a second, brief exam during Orientation week, to verify that they have satisfied the foreign language requirement. Details will be provided upon completion of the placement test.

To take the test:

• Click on the link https://blackboard.princeton.edu/ 
• Login (your student ID and password)
• Click the orange Courses tab
• French search for FRE_LPT2008
• Italian search for ITA_LPT2008

Students who wish to pursue the study of French or Italian beyond the language requirement may do so by taking 207 or other, more advanced courses. Gifted, highly committed students are invited to apply for admission to the department’s summer study program at the at IS Institute in Aix-en-Provence (France) or the University of Macerata (Italy), for which they will obtain official Princeton credit as 207F and 207I, respectively.

Many students obtain advanced placement on the basis of their high school work and are eligible to enter 200-level courses in their freshman year. The study of the French and Italian language can be further pursued in the advanced courses 207, 307, and 407. In addition, the department offers a wide range of 200-, 300- and 400-level courses in the literatures and civilizations of Italy, France, and the French-speaking world. All periods of literature, from the medieval to the contemporary, are covered, but there are also many courses dealing with the culture and societies of the relevant countries, as well as with film in the modern period. Most of these courses are taught in the foreign language; courses taught in English are often complemented by precepts and readings in Italian or French.

The department offers four tracks for concentrators: concentration in one language and literature (French or Italian); concentration in two languages and literatures (one of which must be French or Italian); concentration in French or Italian with another related field (e.g. history, politics, anthropology, sociology...);and concentration in French or Italian with the creative arts (e.g. creative writing, theatre, visual arts...). Students entering the department are expected to have acquired a sound knowledge of either French or Italian by the end of their sophomore year, usually by completing at least one 200-level course. As independent work, concentrators complete two junior papers and a senior thesis, all under close supervision by professors in the department (one advisor for each JP; two for the senior thesis). Independent work does not have to be written in the foreign language.

Students who elect to concentrate in French or Italian are often simultaneously enrolled in special certificate programs, such as Contemporary European Politics and Society, European Cultural Studies, Study of Women and Gender, Latin American Studies, Theater and Dance, or Visual Arts. FIT concentrators may also apply for admission to the certificate program at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Current concentrators

Recent senior theses

To encourage the wider study of French and Italian throughout the student body, the department also offers the Certificate in Language and Culture. Completion of the certificate requires four departmental courses in the language (at least three of which must be at the 300- or 400-level), and the writing of an appropriate piece of independent work using sources in the language and focusing on some aspect of its culture, history, or literature. In many cases (especially if the student’s concentration is in departments such as History, Politics, Art and Archaeology, Music, or WWS), this independent work may be a junior paper or a senior thesis.

Concentrators in French or Italian are strongly encouraged to spend a semester (or a year) in Italy or in a French-speaking country, usually in their junior year. A number of programs are recommended on the basis of positive experience by Princeton students over the years. Courses taken abroad in approved programs may fulfill departmental requirements up to a limit of two courses per semester. Course credit in French and Italian can also be obtained through approved summer study abroad. Princeton’s Study Abroad Program provides information and guidance to students before and during their time abroad.

Princeton-in-France, our long-established and successful internship program, offers students an opportunity to spend from four to eight weeks of the summer working in France in a variety of positions: as a bank employee, tour guide, office assistant, hospital aide, camp counselor, trainee in a multinational corporation, or intern in a government office. Salaries cover normal living expenses, and scholarship funds are available to help with transportation costs, if needed. Applicants must be reasonably fluent in French; a 200-level course in French, taken no later than the fall semester preceding the summer of the internship, is a prerequisite.

The department’s extracurricular offerings include weekly Italian and French language tables in the residential colleges, as well as L’Atelier, the French theater workshop.

Graduates in French and Italian go on to a wide variety of careers. Some undertake graduate study in literature or other disciplines; others enter the world of business or are recruited for management training programs. Our graduates have entered medical schools and won admission to prestigious law schools. Whether you are planning a career in the humanities, education, journalism, government, science, or business, the study of a foreign language, literature, and culture offers a practical and challenging option. As French and Italian are the everyday means of expression and communication of immense populations in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and the repository of several great literatures and cultures, students of French and Italian can expect to acquire both an invaluable skill and a broad education appropriate to the variety of the contemporary world and the increasing intensity of international exchanges.