France

This course considers the emergence of the notion of post-modernity in cinema, and more broadly in the field of social sciences, since the end of the 1970s. It considers the multiple labels that have been attached to this movement (cinema of look, attraction, simulacrum, allusion) which bring together different and sometimes contradictory trends and which has experienced several eras over the last four decades, . From immersive cinema to a taste for recycling, from pastiche to the revisitation of genres, the course discusses works including those of Sofia Coppola, the Coen brothers, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven, Brian De Palma, Quentin Tarantino, and Lana Wachovski.

This course analyzes the "Hollywood" system of move making and its strict adherence to genre films during its golden age. Additionally, it studies multiple film genres, their repeated formulae, and their global reception through reviews and economic trends.  Along with film viewings, coursework includes theoretical texts and primary source documents.

This course explores the interconnectivity between the rapid evolution of media outlets and content, the contemporary “banalization” of terrorist and other types of violence, and their fallout over issues related to social justice in France and Europe. The course examines some recent forms of social confrontation and the way these confrontations are channeled on a grand scale through mass media, both old and new. Students interrogate the political, economic, cultural, and psychological implications, as well as the “spectatorship component,” related to the growing, constant sharing of violence over public platforms, and political agendas. Different cases of social controversies are studied and compared as we probe their relevance to some larger, technological, and globalized frames of analysis. The course examines the adjustments political institutions, social bodies, and media actors have practiced when faced with these forms of protest in moments of crisis. The course attempts to understand how, and to what extent, all these altered notions have impacted national, sectorial, and class-oriented identities.

This course focuses on the relationship between the environment and planning, particularly on zoning policies, construction methods, target objectives, and effects on the desired territories. It discusses policies of the European Union regarding zoning, development and environmental risks, and the connection to game theory to address the link between land development projects, the environment, and justice.