French

This course focuses on the social, societal, and political issues of today's French society through song, cinema, press, questions of identity, secularism, and cultures in France.

From interpersonal violence to political violence, from sex crimes to organized crime, from the family sphere to the public arena, from “news stories” to historical trials, criminal justice reveals our societies, their obsessions, the norms and values that underpin them and evolve over time. Society protects itself by criminalizing deviance and transgression, and in the courtroom, the repulsive figures of this deviance are forged and assigned to the dock. In contemporary France, the legitimacy and symbolic force of the sanction, in terms of the law but also under the weight of representations, social expectations and media focus, are the subject of constant questioning, as the emergence of the victim figure tends to redefine the balance of penal interactions.

The computer graphics workshop allows students to have a real training in the use of creative tools in computer graphics. The course discusses the principles of modeling used to create objects, characters, and universes in 3D and their rendering in images. The objective is to be able to create a plastic universe by modeling objects in 3D.

This course studies several periods of French architecture. The first part of the course covers Antiquity: classic architecture, origins in Greek civilization, Roman technique, and religious and utility buildings. The second part covers the Middle Ages: feudal society, Christianity, Roman & Gothic architecture, churches and cathedrals, and fortified castles. The third part examines modern times: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the invention of printing, the discovery of America, Protestant reform, the Renaissance, and Baroque architecture. Finally, the course covers contemporary times: neoclassicism, aesthetics, eclecticism, the Industrial Revolution, mass production, functionalism, post-war urban expansion, social housing, and Brutalism.

This fifteen-week advanced intermediate conversation, reading and writing course is intended to immerse students in the French language and culture through bi-weekly class sessions and occasional instructor-led site visits. The fall semester program teaches listening, speaking, reading and writing with a focus on communication. Students have the opportunity to use everything they learn in class as they go about their daily activities. Students can expect to be able to talk about a wide variety of topics, such as politics, literature, and the arts, as well as activities relating to their daily lives. While students are learning how to speak the language, they continue their introduction to the culture of the French-speaking world. To immerse students in the language, only French is spoken in class. Although students are not expected to understand every word, they should try to follow the gist by paying attention to the context. Students increase their comprehension as the course progresses. By the end of the course, students are able to understand, perform, and possess the following at a level appropriate to a novice-mid learner: understand and use all the verb tenses of high-frequency regular and irregular verbs, including reflexive verbs; use the indicative, imperative, conditional, subjunctive and infinitive moods; as well as use subject, stressed and object pronouns, articles, expressions of quantity, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, negative and interrogative expressions, relative pronouns, hypothetical sentences and the passive voice, etc; apply the above-mentioned aspects of French grammar (such as verb tense, mode, and conjugation) to written and oral communication; possess a working vocabulary and engage in conversations with an interlocutor in French, using both simple and more complex sentences and vocabulary, with use of past and future tenses as well as conditional and subjunctive moods, on familiar topics and to express their basic everyday needs, as well as on topics relating a variety of contemporary sociological and cultural issues that touch on questions of family structures, the distribution of household chores, housing, health, politics, the education system, leisure activities, the arts, multicultural society, vernacular French, etc., and to discuss themes in contemporary French culture and society; employ the listening strategies and skills necessary to understanding a wide variety of discourse; understand information on French and Francophone culture on the following topics: health and illness, vacation time, family structures, schooling and values of the French Republic, the distribution of household chores, environmental protection, cuisine, grocery shopping and eating habits, the workplace, café life, multi-ethnic society, youth culture, and the geography, music and cuisine of the francophone world; individually and/or collectively present orally information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of sympathetic listeners on a variety of topics; read, understand, answer questions and discuss selected literary and journalistic texts as well as multimedia material; write summaries, dialogues or skits, as well as produce short (2½-3 pages) compositions; reflect upon basic cultural differences as reflected in a variety of French and Francophone contexts, such as varying levels of familiarity/formality, etiquette, cuisine and dietary habits, family structures, commerce and the professional world, etc., as well as in cultural products such as film, performances, news, and music.

This course examines the stakes of microfinance development in developing countries, as well as in Europe. It analyzes the links between financial inclusion and poverty reduction. The course addresses specific needs of targeted populations, the specifics of financial and non-financial services offered to these populations, and the challenges of the stakeholders who gravitate towards microfinance institutions (public donors, investment funds, regulators, rating agencies). Issues of social performance and impact are analyzed to identify best practices and discuss controversial issues.