French

This course covers the political history of Europe from the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. It reflects on the first half of the 19th century, when the great powers agreed to maintain the order established by the Congress of Vienna in Europe and to defeat the national movements. It then explores how liberalism and democracy experienced an important development in the second half of the 19th century when the achievement of Italian and German unity responded to the failures of 1848, in a Europe where, except for France and the United Kingdom, democracy did not progress. Until 1914, authoritarian regimes were numerous and quite powerful. Finally, it discusses the aftermath of the Great War when Europe was confronted with a new phenomenon, that of a fascist wave that affected both Eastern and Southern Europe.

Based on a historical approach, this course questions the various theoretical models of development and their extensions in economic policy. It discusses the various "developmental" approaches of the 1950s and 1970s which made underdevelopment an international problem and whose solution must be found at the national level. It then examines the vision adopted from the 1980s onwards which saw it as a national problem to be tackled at the international level, leading to a homogenization of development strategies underlying structural adjustment. Finally, faced with the (at least relative) failure of the various decades of development, and while underdevelopment remains one of the major issues of the 21st century, the course considers the current focus on reducing poverty and inequality, while the concept of sustainable development is being promoted.

This course focuses on the study of contemporary texts and recordings drawn from the French media (radio, television, newspapers, and films), as well as on the function and place of media in the French society. Exercises give students the opportunity to practice document analysis, grammar, phonetics, and general comprehension. Students also work on a project for the semester with two professors on a media topic of their choice.

This beginning French course focuses on developing oral and written competencies and understanding the basic sentence structure of French. Students learn the basics of introducing oneself in French, simple vocabulary, basic verbs, and conjugations in the present form.

From the contemporary to the extreme contemporary, this course offers a journey through literature. It provides an opportunity to discover, through the study of a few authors and excerpts from various works, how French literature of the last decades takes on a form of engagement and disengagement in the uncertainty that creates our present. The course sharpens sensitivity and broadens knowledge in the literary and cultural fields. It improves mastery of the French language to develop the capacities of analysis, synthesis, and criticism essential to intellectual work. The course focuses on the novel, the short story, and the theater on the path of renewal at the borders of reality and fiction: telling again and again, telling the real in times of crisis.

This course experiments with and develops the techniques and graphic gestures including drawing, imprint, stencil, monotype, screen printing, photomontage, frame-by-frame animation, and cut papers. Sessions are accompanied by image analyses to encourage students to explore to the many possible forms of representation and help situate their practice in the field of current creation. In addition to class sessions, a regular practice provides an opportunity to produce more elaborate works and gain autonomy and singularity.

This course introduces the lexicographical approach implemented in language dictionaries as well as different types of relation and construction of meaning in lexicon. The course covers synonyms, homonyms, antonyms, hyponymy, hyperonymy, derivatives and compounds, and the phenomena of multiple meanings. It provides an opportunity to practice categorizing and organizing the uses of words in the form of mock dictionary entries.

This course focuses on the emergence of the literary tale, both the scholarly and popular aspects, and the way in which its great models, particularly Giovanni Boccaccio’s THE DECAMERON and Giambattista Basile’s STRAPAROLA, depict the oral origins of the genre. As they relate to a corpus of classic literary tales (Perrault, Grimm), the course studies contemporary cinematic adaptations to examine the plasticity of the genre, including the emphasis of fairy tale in popular culture. It examines how these stories are appropriated and adapted to fit the current social and political discourse and discusses whether these adaptations are part of scholarly or popular culture. Films studied include Pier Paolo Pasolini’s LE DECAMERON (1971), Jacques Demy’s PEAU D’ANE (1970), and Pablo Berger’s BLANCANIEVES (2012).

This course studies French business with a focus on commercial, communication, and marketing strategies. Topics covered include selection of products, distribution channels, communication and business image, visual and sound identity, communication decisions, and business reputation. The course utilizes local, national, generalized, and specialized mass media.

This course presents the theories of international commerce from a classical and neoclassical perspective. The course covers the Ricardian model of exchange, the Heckscher-Ohlin model, and contemporary theories of international commerce.