Intense intellectual engagement across linguistic and textual boundaries

Graduate Study

The Department of Romance Studies strives to create an atmosphere of intense intellectual engagement across linguistic and textual boundaries, and students are encouraged to take advantage of the wide array of on-campus lectures, events and resources available to them.

Explore Graduate Resources

French Graduate Program Italian Graduate Program Spanish & Portuguese Graduate Program Current Graduate Students

Graduate Student Spotlight: Yen Vu, French

"I have been continuously drawn to the intersection between history and literature, that is, examining the cultural and political vestiges of French colonialism manifested in literary expression.

I am fortunate that Cornell supports an interdisciplinarity that has encouraged me to become a part of the Southeast Asia Program, in which I am concentrating my minor. My extension beyond the department has given me the opportunity to not only work with scholars in other fields, but also to foster my personal interests through extracurricular discussions on Asian-American identity, contemporary Vietnamese studies, and creative writing."

Click here to read about our current graduate students in the Department of Romance Studies.

Romance Studies News

Three college campus buildings of various architectural types receed into the distance under a grey sky and a bare branch

College of Arts and Sciences announces 2026 Klarman Fellows

The 12 early-career scholars will pursue research in the sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Cornell Cinema unveils diverse, collaboration-driven spring lineup

From midcentury melodramas to speculative visions of technology and the human body—and even a French coming of age story about crafting world class cheese—Cornell Cinema’s spring season offers a varied plate.

Translation offers English readers passage to satirical ‘Island of Hermaphrodites’

The novel, published anonymously in 1605, is "a very funny critique of court life that resonates for anyone dealing with very hierarchical institutions in which the exercise of power is often inscrutable and seemingly random,” says professor Kathleen Perry Long.