Duke’s Center for French and Francophone Studies (CFFS) is the hub for all people and things related to, and interested in, the French language in its diverse expressions. Its home is the Department of Romance Studies but it reaches out across the Duke campus. By nature, it is multidisciplinary and as international as our faculty and students. It celebrates, and interrogates, the protean nature of “Francophonie” through public events and discussions, collaborative research projects, and service-oriented initiatives.
The CFFS mobilizes intellectual energy with all departments, centers and institutes at Duke, collaborates with student organizations and extends its efforts to other research and community groups in the Triangle, the South, and abroad. It is engaged in partnerships with the local Alliance française as well as École Normale Supérieure or University Paris VII-Diderot in France. The Center hosts and co-sponsors a great variety of activities, including workshops and colloquia, a film festival, and visits by distinguished and up-and-coming artists, critics, writers, journalists, theater troupes, dancers, and researchers. Our efforts are geared toward developing exchange throughout the French-speaking world – including in the digital spaces where we work. The Center’s programming is made up of five pillars: guest talk series, events, pedagogical actions, residencies, and academic development for students in French and Francophone Studies.
The CFFS is mainly funded by Duke University. It also has a working relationship with, and receives additional funding from, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy which recognize it as one of its 22 “Centers of Excellence” in the United States.