France

This course introduces the broad literary genre of science fiction, with a particular focus on postwar American science fiction from the classics to cyberpunk. The first part of the course focuses on BLADE RUNNER and analyzes excerpts from various science fiction films of the period, including Ridley Scott's 1982 film adaptation. The second part of the course focuses on BURNING CHROME. The course strengthens literary analysis through close reading and considers how the thematic components of science fiction have developed over time. 

This course introduces performance studies and provides the analytical and methodological tools necessary for research on the ways various performance practices constitute public spaces. It introduces the concept of performance understood as an embodying practice, including everyday performances (self-representations, individual activities, daily interactions), civic performances (speech acts, protests, social movements), and artistic performances (theatre, dance, music, artivism), and the concept of public space, including a smooth public space (a space of peace, harmony, consensus) and a striated public space (a space of confrontation, disharmony, dissensus). The course studies how different performances are constructed, how they constitute public spaces, and, consequently, how they produce social, political, and cultural effects. In providing insight into various performance practices, performance theory, political theory, and art studies, this course appeals to students interested in developing the theoretical tools necessary for the study of the significance of performance practices in shaping public actions, discourses, representations, and opinions. Through a combination of close reading of texts, lectures, discussions, video projections and assignments, the course analyzes selected performances both in group and individually. Reflective discussions about selected texts and performances are designed to maximize student input and participation. Equipped with analytical skills, students learn to assess how performances can challenge and reshape public space.

This course is specialized for international students. It presents French history and its political institutions and provides a general knowledge of the French political and legal system. The course covers the history of French construction until 1789; constitutional history of France since 1789; the system of the Fifth Republic; executive power (President, Government) territorial organization; legislative power (the National Assembly, the Senate); judicial power (courts of private and public law, constitutional council); the territorial system (decentralization, local authorities); the distinction between private law, public law, mixed rights; and the hierarchy of norms.

This course is specialized for international students and designed specifically for native English speakers to practice advanced literary translation from and into French. It works on a corpus of short texts chiefly from the 19th and 20th centuries. The “prose” section of the course provides a chance to test and improve knowledge of French syntax and idioms, and become familiar with the stylistic requirements of written French. The French texts that are translated into English are by major French authors. The course also explores the various mechanisms involved in translation (such as modulation and transposition), working from the hypothesis that translation and literary analysis are indissociable.

This course focuses on the history of Rome from the foundation of the Republic until the commencement of the imperial era. It explores how the Roman Republic’s political structures allowed it to become the primary power of the Mediterranean and Western worlds. It also explores in depth the authors and historiography of this period.

This course covers how to establish the relationship between chemical and physicochemical mechanisms and the evolution of the quality of a wine. It also covers how to choose the analyses adapted to control or respond to a given problem, carry them out, interpret the results, and give the necessary advice and prescriptions.

This course focuses on the history of Central and Eastern Europe during the mid-15th to mid-17th centuries. Topics include the Holy Roman Empire, The Ottoman Empire, the protestant reformation, Scandinavia, and Russia at this time. Furthermore, it explores the complex relations between these states after the Middle Ages and the creations of the states that would continue into the contemporary era.

This course presents a broad picture of international migration in recent history and a detailed picture of its recent trends. It introduces the analytical and empirical tools that are necessary to evaluate its impact on the host countries.

The course provides a fundamental knowledge of genetics. It covers how traits are passed from one generation to the next, the role of genes in biological functions, methods for mapping genes to chromosomes and predicting risk of transmission of monogenic pathologies, and methods to characterize and/or create an animal model for a genetic disease.

At an empirical level, this course provides a solid knowledge in Lebanese history, mainly in the major violent episodes of its trajectory: the civil war (1975-1990), Israeli occupation (1982-2000), and Hezbollah's intervention in Syria (since 2013). It also presents a specific understanding of a practice of power far removed from what can be observed in Western democracies. Without being an authoritarian regime, the Lebanese political staff has always had a particular definition of ruling, a special understanding of democracy, that goes beyond the usual features shared by consociational systems everywhere else in the world (Switzerland, Belgium, Bosnia). This course is hence thought-provoking in political science, as it introduces models of ruling usually unfamiliar, models that are more frequent than typically imagined. By doing so, the course also triggers a shared reflection on theoretical concepts of political science, and a questioning of the universality of some of what Western political sociology sees as basic elementary truths and rules of the game in politics-in-practice. The course addresses Lebanese contemporary history; the notion of militancy in contexts of violence; a critical notion of foreign intervention, peacemaking, peacebuilding, state building, reconciliation, and transitional justice; and a good command of a particular case of consociational politics.