French

This course is divided into three individual portions: the comprehension of written texts, application of the grammar and orthography systems to effectively analyze written texts, and an application of these methods to produce original texts. Comprehension of written texts is intended to build useful habits in order to examine a document, afterwards students are expected to employ good grammar and orthography in their responses.

This course reflects on contemporary issues through the lens of the political history of the last century. Political history is a broad term and incorporates social, economic, and cultural actors. The 20th century is analyzed through three angles: wars and types of war; collective utopia and individual rights; and human security and insecurity. The course examines how a multi-pronged inquest into security and the defense of human rights forged our 21st century. 

The extensive independent study field research paper produced by the student is both the centerpiece of the intern's professional engagement and the culmination of the academic achievements of the semester. During the preparatory session, IFE teaches the methodological guidelines and principles to which students are expected to adhere in the development of their written research. Students work individually with a research advisor from their field. The first task is to identify a topic, following guidelines established by IFE for research topic choice. The subject must be tied in a useful and complementary way to the student-intern's responsibilities, as well as to the core concerns of the host organization. The research question should be designed to draw as much as possible on resources available to the intern via the internship (data, documents, interviews, observations, seminars and the like). Students begin to focus on this project after the first 2-3 weeks on the internship. Each internship agreement signed with an organization makes explicit mention of this program requirement, and this is the culminating element of their semester. Once the topic is identified, students meet individually, as regularly as they wish, with their IFE research advisor to generate a research question from the topic, develop an outline, identify sources and research methods, and discuss drafts submitted by the student. The research advisor also helps students prepare for the oral defense of their work which takes place a month before the end of the program and the due date of the paper. The purpose of this exercise is to help students evaluate their progress and diagnose the weak points in their outline and arguments. Rather than an extraneous burden added to the intern's other duties, the field research project grows out of the internship through a useful and rewarding synergy of internship and research. The Field Study and Internship model results in well-trained student-interns fully engaged in mission-driven internships in their field, while exploring a critical problem guided by an experienced research advisor.

This course presents the political philosophy of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the most influential British philosopher of the nineteenth century and a central figure in the liberal tradition of political thought. ON LIBERTY (1859), his most widely known work and one which no student of political philosophy can afford to ignore, is a cornerstone of classical liberal theory; and THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN (1869) constitutes a pioneering application of the theory—and of Mill's empiricism—to the question of equality between the sexes. The course proceeds in an orderly fashion through all five chapters of ON LIBERTY before turning to a thorough reading of THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN, making regular pauses to put Mill's thought in broader perspective against the general background of his empiricist philosophy, as well as the historical place of his thought within the liberal tradition.