France

This course studies the concepts and major stages of criminological ideas, explanatory models of deviance and their limits, secondary criminalization and application of the law, and contemporary perspectives of research on criminology. This course is worth 3.0 units but students can earn and extra 1.0 unit by writing an additional paper.

The European Union, born out of the ashes of the World War II, was one of the grand political projects of the twentieth century and is today a major actor. Students need to have knowledge of the European institutions and fundamental notions of the law of the European Union. This course presents the actors in the European construction and the mechanisms that help make decisions. It analyzes the legal order of the Union, notably in terms of respecting fundamental laws. Students study the perspectives introduced by the notion of European citizenship and look at the current questions that influence the European Project.

This course introduces students to the principles, approaches, and quantitative methods of population analysis and demographic phenomena (population structures and movement, trends in mortality, fertility, and migration). Students learn how demographic dynamics are linked with socio-economic advancement, in different regions of the world. To discuss demographic phenomena like the demographic transition, population growth and population aging, students are made familiar with demographic concepts, socio-economic theory, and descriptive statistics. The presentation of specific analytical tools for the measurement of population dynamics provides students with the ability to read the tables and the graphs that are displayed later in the course. Students are also made familiar with current empirical research results in the field of demography. Finally, students are encouraged to discuss policy implications of demographic challenges in diverse regions of the world.

The goal of this course is to confront the French and English journalistic traditions. It looks at the history of the press, from the first newspapers to the digital era. From the time of the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, the English press has been characterized by its liberty in how it treats political power. To the contrary, the French press has built itself around a centralized system, closely controlled by the State, which has endured since the end of the Old Regime and even, in a certain sense, until the 1881 Law Of the Press. Of course globalization has eroded some of the differences between the two journalistic models. However, the course examines the enduring deep disparities, by looking at examples taken from recent history, such as the Sofitel affair in New York and the News of the World scandal.

This course presents the social, cultural, and political history of Great Britain from the creation of the Anglican Church by Henry VIII in 1534, to the implementation of laws regarding the poor, up through the abolition of slavery in 1834. Topics include the influence of the Anglican Church and religious relations in Great Britain, the Glorious Revolution, the emergence of political parties, social relations, and the place of women in society. In the discussion section, students analyze primary source documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and practice methods of history dissertation.

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.

In a trend that has been shared by all of the liberal democracies, politics has become increasingly personalized. The renewed focus on the personalization of politics adopts a comparison stance between “party democracy” and “audience democracy”. It emphasizes the loosening grip of class-based politics and the increasing role of individual politicians in determining how people view politics and how they express their political preferences. This seminar provides students with an overview of the different spheres (institutions, political parties, political discourse, political campaigns, and voting behavior) in which this personalization trend impacts our perception of politics, and investigates the issue whether or not there is a significant personalization of Western politics.