French and Francophone Studies at Lehman College

04/12/2026

Explore the new French @ Lehman website:

https://lehmanfrench.commons.gc.cuny.edu

Discover our French Program at Lehman College—offering a major, minor, study abroad opportunities, and a vibrant student club—alongside a rich collection of Francophone resources from around the world. The site features hundreds of curated links to press outlets, cultural institutions, literary platforms, conferences, and radio & TV from across the Francophone world, organized by theme and region. A unique hub for students, scholars, and anyone interested in French and Francophone cultures—on five continents.

05/30/2025

Félicitations à tous les nouveaux diplômés, et surtout à nos excellents diplômés du programme de français !!

Nous voici dans la cérémonie des prix du département de langues et littératures, où nous avons reconnu les accomplissements de nos nouveaux diplômés aujourd’hui, parmi lesquels Mariama Barry (BA in French with departmental honors), Tomás Ó hÍde (BA in French with departmental honors, recipient of the Elizabeth S. and Henry Peters Prize for Excellence in French), Stéphanie Zvi (in absentia, French Teacher BA and Peters Prize recipient), Astride Toh (BA Multimedia Studies, minor in French).

Félicitations et bon été à tous !!

05/25/2025

Nos sincères félicitations aux nouveaux initiés de l’année scolaire 2024-2025 à Pi Delta Phi, la societe d’honneur du francais. La section Zêta Sigma de Pi Delta Phi à Lehman College a célébré la réussite en études francophones de cinq nouveaux membres réguliers :

Sakwende Bandaogo
Julien Bayili
Biki N’Wuitcha
Mitsaida Carlencie Halle Pierre
Mouhamed Thioune

Nous avons aussi célébré les fortes contributions au programme de la professeure Marjolaine Auclair-Davreux, maintenant membre honoraire de la section Zêta Sigma de Pi Delta Phi.

Voici quelques photos de la cérémonie d’initiation le lundi 12 mai 2025, menée par les modérateurs Prof. Francisco Montaño et Lynne Van Voorhis. Félicitations à tous nos nouveaux membres !

02/19/2025

The Francophone Club at Student Club Fair, with club president Alexis Nunez, Profs. Montaño, Pawa, and Erfani. Reach out if you want to become a club member, with weekly “Language Yoga,” Café gatherings starting now, and “Les Matinées blanches” starting in April!

03/06/2024

Un immense texte que nous avons très souvent enseigné dans le programme de français à Lehman College. Ne manquez pas cette occasion de voir ce texte de Marguerite Duras mis en scène, avec la magnifique Dominique Blanc, par le légendaire Patrice Chéreau (avant son décès en 2013), ici même à NYC.

Theater
La Douleur

Based on the text by Marguerite Duras
Starring Dominique Blanc

US Premiere (Student price: $25)

Wednesday, March 13 & Thursday, March 14
7:30 pm
FIAF Florence Gould Hall

Directed by Patrice Chéreau and Thierry Thieû Niang

Based on Marguerite Duras’ 1985 text The War: A Memoir, this performance recounts the anguish of a woman awaiting her husband’s return from the Dachau concentration camp. In 1945, as the globe celebrated an end to World War II, Duras (1914-1996) was despondent; her husband remained missing, and she had no idea if he was dead or alive.

French actress Dominique Blanc reprises her 2010 Molière Best Actress Award-winning role in this wrenching performance. Re-staged by Patrice Chéreau (Jahrhundertring) with choreography by Thierry Thieû Niang (Une jeune fille de 90 ans), La Douleur is resonant with Duras’ physical and psychological turmoil throughout WWII. The adaptation echoes the simplicity and intensity of Duras’ writing.

Directed by Patrice Chéreau and Thierry Thieû Niang Based on Marguerite Duras’ 1985 text The War: A Memoir, this performance recounts the anguish of a woman awaiting her husband’s return from the Dachau concentration camp. In 1945, as the globe celebrated an end to World War II, Duras (1914-19...

11/14/2023

Une forte présence du programme de français et du Club Francophone au festival International Day, aujourd’hui dans le Student Life Building ! Merci à tous les participants et visiteurs de notre table !

04/22/2023

Wrapping up the “Fall 2023 Reception for Accepted Students” at Lehman College, representing the Languages and Literatures Department, which of course includes the French program. It’s really moving to see the amazement on students’ faces while discovering everything we have to offer. Spread the word! Send us even more students our way next year! Lehman is a grand college, one of the nation’s strongest for upward social mobility! The department is also one of the strongest in languages at CUNY!

The French Program at Lehman College offers a Bachelor of Arts in French (FRE-BA) and Bachelor of Arts French Teacher Education 7-12 (FRET-BA) and a minor.

Majors:

FRE-BA: The French major prepares students for a variety of careers in business, government, education, and the arts. Students in the major develop fluency in French, learn about French and Francophone cultures, and study French literature and linguistics.
FRET-BA: The French Teacher Education 7-12 major prepares students to become French teachers in grades 7-12. Students in the major develop fluency in French, learn about French and Francophone cultures, and study French pedagogy.

Minors:

The French minor is a great way for students to add a strong mastery of second language to their academic portfolio. Minors in the Department consist of 12 credits above the 100 level. A minimum of two courses must be taken at the 300 or 400 level.

Study Abroad:

The French Program offers a variety of study abroad opportunities in France and other Francophone countries. Students can study for a semester or a year in Paris, or they can participate in shorter-term programs, such as summer intensives or faculty-led travel courses.

Here are some of the benefits of studying French at Lehman College:

- You will develop fluency in French, a language spoken by many hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
- You will learn about French and Francophone cultures, including their history, art, literature, and music.
- You will graduate with a competitive edge in the job market.

If you are interested in learning French, we encourage you to consider the French Program at Lehman College. We offer a rigorous and rewarding program that will prepare you for a lifetime of success.

https://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/languages-literatures/french.php

04/18/2023

"We may be on the verge of a recession, or we may already be in one. After decades of slack labor markets and anemic wage growth, for an all-too-brief period the post-COVID-lockdown world saw a tight job market and employers actually competing for workers. But with inflation high and the Fed having raised rates aggressively, many are projecting a serious downturn that will surely hurt workers. Under those conditions, it’s more important than ever that college students take practical majors. Like French.
Yes, French. The major that’s so often derided as the height of impractical folly, the interest of people who want to fritter their time away reciting poetry and watching New Wave cinema, in fact revolves around a skill that has a great chance to be invaluable in the coming half-century: the ability to communicate in one of the fastest-growing languages in the world [...] the French-speaking part of Africa will play a huge role in determining humanity’s future. The French language rises with it. To put things in relative terms, the Francophone world, where as many as 525 million people live, is larger than the entire European Union. And where population growth happens, economic importance tends to follow."

Why everything we assume about a degree in humanities might be wrong.

11/02/2022

Lehman student-run Francophone Club organized an amazing event with the Haitian singer Lalin St Juste, on Thursday Oct. 27. The artist put a truly incredible live concert for our students right there in our amphitheater (Carman B-39), performing about ten tracks from her genre-bending electro-soul band The Seshen. Especial thanks to the club president and vice-president, Simira Smith and Kilhah Stfort. You can find Lalin St Juste on Spotify and her website: https://lalinstjuste.com

Please support our students and the Francophone Club by attending their events (Instagram: )

08/27/2022

C'est la rentrée ! 📚
Welcome back to the Lehman campus, where most courses are held in person this fall.
We've got a strong line-up in French: the last day to add courses is August 31. See the Department of Languages & Literatures web page for late registration advisement, permissions and placement.

The *Club francophone* of Lehman welcomes new students: Francophones, francophiles and others interested in Francophone cultures.

Sign-up to the Club francophone via Lehman's "Club Central"
➡️ https://clubs.lehman.edu/organization/thefrancophoneclub
The Club will announce its first fall event soon.
https://www.instagram.com/francophoneclublc/

(While you're at Club Central, RSVP for Lehman's "welcome back"🍦ice-cream social on Thursday, September 1, from 3 to 5 p.m.)

Au plaisir de vous voir de retour chez nous à Lehman !

02/14/2022

Staged Reading: Aimé Césaire’s "A Tempest"/« Une tempête »

In Person: Monday, February 28, 2022
7:30pm
FIAF Florence Gould Hall

Livestream: Monday, February 28, 2022
7:30pm ET
Online through Sunday, March 6, 2022

In English

Celebrated poet and activist Aimé Césaire strikingly adapts Shakespeare’s Jacobean play through a postcolonial lens. The characters and plot are largely unchanged. Prospero conjures a violent storm to drive his enemy’s ship ashore on the island on which he is exiled with his daughter. Césaire sets the story specifically on an island in the Caribbean and depicts Caliban and Ariel as black slaves to Prospero. Their opposing voices echo Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

Written in the tumultuous 1960s, A Tempest uses intelligence, wit, and beauty to confront complex intersections of race, power, and anti-imperialism.

This staged reading is directed by Lanise Antoine Shelley, the Artistic Director of Chicago’s House Theatre and the 2021 Drama League Classical Directing Fellow.

This event is presented in celebration of Black History Month.

Une Tempête, a play by Aimé Césaire
Based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Translated from the French by Philip Crispin
Cast will be announced soon

Performance: 2 hours

Staged Reading Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest Une tempête In Person: Monday, February 28, 20227:30pm FIAF Florence Gould Hall Livestream: Monday, February 28, 20227:30pm ET Online through Sunday, March 6, 2022 In English Celebrated poet and activist Aimé Césaire strikingly adapts Shakespeare’s Ja...