France

The 19th century saw the reinvention of the subterranean. From the sewers in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables to the striking miners of Émile Zola’s Germinal, novelists began exploring the space beneath their feet. By the turn of the century, the opening of the Paris catacombs to the public and the construction of the metro system fueled the collective imagination, while the hidden strata of history and consciousness were being charted by the developing fields of archaeology and psychoanalysis. In the early to mid-20th century, the subterranean was as much a metaphor as it was a reality, with artists and philosophers drawing inspiration from newly discovered prehistoric cave paintings and the French Resistance returning once again to Hugo’s sewers. This class follows modernity as it goes underground. This course discusses topics including French and Parisian history and culture, urban text and its expressions in literature and film, and historical events and reinterpreting them in the context of their reliance on hidden historical and cultural undercurrents.

This course investigates how the early childhood period contributes to the reproduction of social inequalities, focusing on the role of early education and care, and on the interplay between micro-level characteristics with the policy context. Several interdisciplinary concepts are introduced, as well as the key policy evaluation tools, as applied to (early) education and care. The course discusses and questions current concepts in the early childhood literature and their relevance to the reproduction of social inequalities; examines early education and care; explores cross-national differences in early childhood policies and current policy debates; considers the concepts behind key policy evaluation tools; and applies acquired knowledge to evaluate early education programs and their role in the production of inequalities. Sessions are interactive and require participation.

This course provides an introduction to the field of postcolonial theory by way of literature produced in former colonies of the British Empire, with particular focus on Australia and New Zealand. It covers their histories as a nation, information about the indigenous communities that live there, and applications of postcolonial theory onto these two countries. Understanding is mainly based through two novels, THE SECRET RIVER by Kate Grenville and THE WHALE RIDER by Witi Imaheara. The novels are examined through various aspects, including but not limited to gender, nature, and "The Other."

This course consists of intensive instruction in written and oral French, taught through audio-visual method and group work with an instructor. The course strengthens comprehension and expression skills through exercises. Oral French focuses on difficult cases of spelling, vocabulary of selected fields, and sentence structure. Written work includes advanced intermediate grammar, syntax, and spelling, with a focus on academic writing for French universities. Materials used in class present contemporary regional topics.

This course explores the place of food in art in France, with a focus on the modern and contemporary periods. The course studies representations of food as a means to survey the evolution of French art within a global context, and as significant markers of social, ethnic, and cultural identity. An analysis of these depiction provides the opportunity to learn about dietary and dining customs, habits and beliefs prevalent in France from the early modern period to the present. The course begins by decoding the archetypal representations of succulent food in the still life and genre painting of 16th-17th century Holland, then examines how the rise of these previously minor artistic genres in 18th century France coincided with the birth of French gastronomy. Frivolous depictions of aristocrats wining, dining, and indulging in exotic beverages like coffee and hot chocolate then give way in post-Revolutionary France to visions of austerity and “real life,” featuring potato-eating peasants. The focus then shifts to representations of food and dining in the age of modernity, when Paris was the undisputed capital of art, luxury, haute cuisine, and innovation. Drawing from these pictorial and social innovations, the course observes the place of food and dining themes in the avant-garde movements of early 20th-century Paris. The course questions the place of food—or its absence--in art to capture the suffering and violence of upheavals like the Second World War. The course considers the place of food and dining in contemporary art: from the Pop Art movement calling into question postwar consumer society through its representations of industrialized, mass-produced food; to contemporary creators in a plural and globalized art scene who use these traditional themes to challenge the status and roles of the artist, the spectator, and the work of art itself; to how depictions of food in visual art grapple with multiculturalism in France today.

This course offers an individual and collective occasion to master research, planning, and writing abilities to make sense of recent developments in connection and comparison with each other by using several political-historical methods. It trains students to interpret and deconstruct contemporary and past events with an original gaze by asking well-defined research questions; conducting research using traditional sources such as archives, as well as digital techniques; collecting, citing, and quoting sources; and bringing their findings together using analytical, historiographical, and conceptual tools. Connections are made between cases in international and global arena, supported by the findings through archival research, interviews, interdisciplinary approach, and the review of press and secondary literature. By adopting a critical review of their findings, students follow and comprehend sophisticated academic debates; take cultural, contextual, and ideological differences into consideration; work with techniques offered by multiple disciplines; report on their studies and research; and learn time management.