Tom Conley, a 16th-century French literature expert currently teaching at the University of Minnesota, accepted tenure and will being teaching at Harvard in September, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Alice A. Jardine said Sunday.

Conley will be the sixth tenured professor in the French section of the Romance Languages and Literatures Department and the second professor tenured this year.

Naomi Schor, a professor at Duke University specializing in 19th-century French literature, was appointed senior professor in March and will also begin teaching in September.

Conley, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, "is interested in 16th-century French literature and its relation to the graphic imagination," said Mary M. Gaylord, the chair of the Romance Languages and Literatures Department. She said he will probably teach classes in 16th-century literature, modern film and map-making.

Conley, 52, graduated with honors from Lawrence University in 1965. He received masters degrees from Columbia University in 1966 and the University of Paris at Sorbonne in 1968 and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1971.

Conley, who specializes in French literature, film and contemporary theory and culture, began his teaching career as an assistant professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota in 1971 and became an associate professor four years later. In 1979, he received tenure. From 1983 to 1988, he served as the chair of the Department of French and Italian.