We offer financial support for PhD-track students in the form of fellowships and associate instructorships. Funding packages cover 4-5 years of study, depending on degree-level when entering the program, and include full health insurance coverage, a stipend, and tuition remission.
Financial Support
Associate Instructorships (AI positions)
All applicants to our French/Francophone Studies, French Linguistics, and Italian Studies programs are considered for the financial support of an associate instructor (AI) position. AIs are part-time teachers of language in the department and are responsible for teaching their own sections of French or Italian under the guidance of the course director. All AIs are required to hold two office hours each week during the period they are teaching. Associate instructors normally teach one section in one semester and two in the other during any given year.
- French AI positions
New AIs are required to enroll in F572 Practicum in College French Teaching (1 credit hour) during the fall semester of the first year of teaching. They are also required to enroll in the course F573 Methods in College French Teaching (3 credit hours) during the spring semester.
- Italian AI positions
All new Italian AIs are required to enroll in M572 Italian Teaching Practicum (1 credit hour) during their first semester. All Italian AIs must also take M573 Methods of Italian Language Teaching (3 credit hours) in their first or second year.
- Special AI positions
In addition to associate instructor positions in language classes, advanced students with adequate pedagogical skills to grade compositions in English may also have the opportunity to serve as associate instructors in large lecture courses taught by French and Italian faculty members in the College’s Critical Approaches Curriculum, or in the College’s Public Oral Communications course. Such assignments carry a tuition remission as well as the standard AI stipend.
Teaching observations
Each academic year, associate instructors are observed teaching in the classroom at least once by their course director, who discusses the observation with the AI. All new AIs are required to participate in AI Orientation, held before the start of Fall classes.
Additional appointment opportunities
Student academic appointees are occasionally assigned to faculty in the Department of French and Italian, in the form of temporary assistantships such as:
- Serving as a graduate assistant (GA) to assist a professor with research and/or teaching as part of the professor’s hiring agreement with the dean.
- Serving as an editorial assistant to a professor who edits a scholarly publication.
- Serving as a research assistant (RA) to assist with a professor’s research.
Such appointments offer valuable research and pedagogical opportunities for our graduate students.
Outside the Department, other opportunities for assistantships are available. Please see the Grad Grants Center for more information on these options.
Interested in fellowships & awards?
Investigate opportunities to fund your graduate student career.
The College of Arts