Fall Quarter 2025
- For day, time, room, and TA information, see our PDF Schedule or the class search tool https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm.
- For all courses not described here, please refer to the General Catalog course descriptions: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/courses-subject-code/fre
Language Courses
FRE 001Y-003Y: Elementary French
FRE 021Y-022Y: Intermediate French
See Placement Guide or Catalog Descriptions
Undergraduate Courses
FRE 100 Composition in French
TBA
FRE 107B Making of Modern France
Claire Goldstein
Read real historical documents, analyze painting and architecture, and
re-enact philosophical debates about important social issues in this quarter’s exploration of the political and cultural history of France from the beginning of the seventeenth century through the middle of the nineteenth century. Highlights of our survey will include: Henri IV’s Edict of Nantes, which ended the French Religious Wars; Versailles and Louis XIV’s cultural and political project of French absolutism; Enlightenment polemics about economic inequality and religious toleration; the Revolution of 1789; the rise of Napoleon; and the industrial transformation of Paris in the nineteenth century. We will engage topics such as the role of women and minorities in society and France’s relationship with the broader world as students hone reading, writing, and speaking skills in French. Prerequisite FRE 23 or permission of instructor
FRE 109: French Phonetics
Eric Russell
This course is designed to familiarize you with French sounds and structures, as well as the principles of phonetics applicable to all languages. You will learn how sounds are produced, how articulatory parameters differ between French and English (and other languages), and how sounds undergo changes depending on context, style, and other factors. By doing so, you will be able to better contrast and compare the two and other languages, understand the pronunciation mistakes commonly made by non-native learners, review the correspondence between written and spoken French, and explore regional variation. Prerequisite FRE 23 or permission of instructor.
GE: SS
FRE 118A The Age of Reason and Revolution
Julia Simon
In this course, we will examine the trajectory of French philosophical thought on society and political life during the Enlightenment, ending with the Revolution of 1789. We will study well-known texts from the Age of Enlightenment by the philosophes, such as Rousseau, Montesquieu and Diderot, as well as the historical events of the French, Haitian and American Revolutions. Most importantly, we will look closely at concepts such as liberty, equality and citizenship that prefigure debates of the revolutionary period up through the present day.
Graduate Courses
FRE 200 Introduction to Graduate Study in French
Toby Warner
FRE 209A 20th-Century: Prose
Jeff Fort
FRE 390A Teaching French
Julia Simon