France

This course offers an introduction to the evolution of the French monarchy from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, a period marked by profound political, institutional, and administrative transformations. It examines the foundations of royal authority in the sixteenth century and traces the development of absolutism under the kings of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Attention is given to the principles of sovereignty, the institutional structures supporting monarchical power, and the central role of the curia regis in shaping royal governance. The course also explores how royal authority was exercised in the provinces, the mechanisms through which the monarchy expanded and consolidated its power, and the financial and fiscal systems that sustained the state. Finally, it analyzes the formation and evolution of the royal army as a key instrument of monarchical authority. Together, these perspectives provide a comprehensive understanding of the political and institutional foundations of early modern France.

This course focuses on the crisis of democratic politics in Europe, placing it in the wider context of the evolution of postwar democracy, as well as seeking to build accounts of our present politics. It develops a refined understanding of democratic politics in Europe, introducing academic accounts of party democracy, technocracy, and populism, and deploying them in the context of postwar European history. In so doing, this course enriches the understanding of commonly deployed notions and concepts for the purpose of contemporaneous political analysis, rendering more clearly both the disjunctures and continuities of Europe's Democratic Age.

From a political science perspective, this course investigates the stark material inequalities that exist between countries and world regions. It covers the transnational political-economy processes that shape inequalities within and between countries, including perspectives on the winners and losers of global trade, the deregulation of global finance, the precarity created along global production chains, tax evasion of multinational companies, migration, and the rise of global tech companies. The course reflects on the consequences of these processes for areas such as democracy, gender relations, and climate change.

This course provides a general overview of the history of cinema and the various perspectives through which it can be seen. Spanning from the 1890s to the 2000s, the course covers a wide variety of eras by focusing on specific films that each represent the time in which they were filmed.