The Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World (CEFMF) is an interdisciplinary institute devoted to the study of France and the francophone world.
We sponsor a wide range of programs that bring together scholars and students within the University of Toronto, from across Canada, and from around the world. Committed to thinking about French and francophone studies in global contexts and from a range of critical perspectives, we foster scholarly conversation between specialists of metropolitan France, French colonial history, and the pasts and presents of francophone places and peoples.
CEFMF people & visiting academics
Tommaso Pavone, CEFMF Director
Tommaso Pavone is Assistant Professor of European Politics and Visiting Researcher at the ARENA Center for European Studies at the University of Oslo. His research traces how lawyers, courts, and policymakers impact political development, social change, and the rule of law in Europe. Pavone has conducted fieldwork in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Norway.
Affiliated research fellows
The Centre periodically welcomes researchers spending time at the University of Toronto as Affiliated Research Fellows. While with us, they work on their own research projects, pursue collaborations with colleagues at the University, and participate in the intellectual life of the Centre.
Visiting professors
CEFMF welcomes visiting professors in French history from a university or research institution in France, to teach a graduate seminar and participate in the research life of the University.
Visiting scholars
CEFMF welcomes scholars from France and other francophone countries to deliver lectures, lead informal graduate seminars, pursue individual or collaborative research, and participate in the intellectual life of the University campus.
Equally engaged with research in the humanities and the social sciences, the Centre’s affiliated faculty and invited scholars count anthropologists, art historians, historians, literary scholars, political scientists and sociologists. They investigate France’s multisecular past, its plural cultural legacies, and its place in Europe and the world today; they likewise consider francophonie’s global reach yesterday and today, from Africa to the Caribbean, and the Pacific to Canada.
Established in 2007 as part of a French Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ initiative to create centres of excellence in French studies in Canadian universities, in 2014 CEFMF was the first of its kind to be awarded the French Embassy in Canada’s Saint-Simon Initiative distinction for the breadth and quality of its programming.
Today, CEFMF is one of the programs that make up the Centre for European and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and is affiliated with Victoria College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Toronto. The Centre also enjoys the ongoing support of the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Departments of French and History.
CEFMF pilots a wide range of programs that bring together scholars and students and supports pathbreaking interdisciplinary research into various aspects of the francophone world. We encourage its study at the undergraduate and graduate levels, foster international exchange and research collaborations, and engage in outreach towards the broader community in the greater Toronto area.
The Centre builds upon and carries forward the University of Toronto’s distinguished tradition of teaching and scholarship in French studies. Home to a broad range of faculty and researchers working on France and the francophone world across a number of disciplines, to rich library and archival collections in French studies, and to the largest Department of French in Canada, as well as an active participant in faculty and student exchange programs with peer institutions in France, the University of Toronto has long been a centre for excellence in French studies.
Doctoral Research Grants
CEFMF provides short-term doctoral research grants support graduate research in French and Francophone studies at the University of Toronto. Each year CEFMF offers two to three travel grants of up to $3500 to help defray the costs of visiting libraries and archives, conducting interviews, or undertaking other field research in France, francophone countries, or other francophone contexts and institutions abroad. These grants can be held in conjunction with other funding. Eligibility is restricted to students enrolled in a PhD program who have already successfully completed their comprehensive examinations in any humanities or social science discipline at the University of Toronto.
Upon the completion CEFMF-funded field research, grant awardees are expected to write a short blogpost that will be featured on the CEFMF website to discuss their research experience and stay abroad, which will also serve as an opportunity to spotlight their doctoral research. Grant awardees will also be provided with the opportunity to participate in a bespoke CEFMF-sponsored workshop to present and receive feedback on their PhD research.
CEFMF activities
Lectures
Each academic year, CEFMF organizes a series of lectures to bring distinguished and promising young scholars from around the world to Toronto.
Conferences & workshops
CEFMF periodically organizes major conferences and smaller workshops on themes of scholarly and current importance, as well as roundtables bringing together specialists to shed light on contemporary events in France and across the francophone world.
Toronto-area French history seminar
Founded by historians at York University and the University of Toronto, this seminar series brings together scholars and graduate students working on the history of France and the francophone world. The organizers are committed to situating graduate studies at the heart of the series, and cultivate a welcoming environment and active participation by students and ensure that advanced doctoral candidates have an opportunity to present their work.
CONTACT CEFMF
TOMMASO PAVONE
Director
OLGA KESARCHUK
Business Officer
olga.kesarchuk@utoronto.ca