France

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.

This course provides a key understanding of the historical and ideological foundations of the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary regime and its foreign policy. From the Iranian Revolution in 1979, a turning point in Middle Eastern and global contemporary politics, it overviews the deep changes in the ideological and political landscapes resulting from the establishment of the Islamic Republic: the impact on political Islam, the regional equilibrium, Iran's place in the international community, and the reactivation of rivalries and confessional tensions with neighboring countries. The study of the Iranian political and religious model through a multidisciplinary perspective helps to understand the immediate consequences of the Revolution, its longer-terms effects, and the regional reaction.

This course provides a critical view of global issues that are ubiquitous, but often overlooked or simplified in public debate. It is based on rich illustrations to understand the profound interdependence of social, environmental, economic, and security issues internationally. Topics covered include: conflicts and security; global inequalities; environmental problems or the "return of the sacred"; the diversification of the actors on the world stage; re-geopoliticization of the world; the transformations of the international system; from economic governance or the search for lost regulation; environment and International Relations. This course mobilizes contributions from other perspectives from sociology, political theory, economics, human geography, and global and comparative history.

This course, the fourth in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its contiguous course FR45B, is roughly equivalent to the fourth and fifth quarters of French language instruction on students’ home campuses. FR45A and FR45B provide students who have completed a university-level first-year French course or its equivalent the opportunity to expand and improve their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as expand their cultural knowledge of the French and Francophone world. The course is based on a presentation of intermediate-level forms of grammar, an expansion of students’ basic working vocabulary, and practice of oral and written communicative skills. Placement in this course is determined by students’ previous experience and the results of a language assessment taken prior to arrival. Course material includes: MOTIFS: AN INRODUCTION TO FRENCH, by K. Jansma, Heinle, 5th Edition, 2011, and RÉSEAU: COMMUNICATION, INTEGRATION, INTERSECTIONS, by J.M. Schultz and M.P. Tranvouez, Prentice Hall, 1st Edition, 2010. Through the 45AB course sequence, students gain the ability to communicate in spoken and written French and develop an understanding of intermediate French grammar points and working vocabulary including contemporary sociological and cultural issues that touch on questions of family and professional relationships, class, social, ethnic, multicultural, and political identities, and the role of the arts in contemporary contexts. Following the 45AB course sequence, students are familiar with all the verb tenses of high-frequency regular, irregular and reflexive verbs, the indicative, imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods, as well as subject and object pronouns, articles, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, negative and interrogative expressions. Students apply these aspects of French grammar (such as verb tense, mode and conjugation) to written and oral communication and use listening strategies and skills necessary to understanding a wide variety of discourse. Additionally students are required to give individual and group presentations; read, understand, answer questions and discuss selected literary and journalistic texts as well as multimedia material; write summaries, dialogues or skits, as well as produce short compositions. Students reflect upon basic cultural differences as reflected in a variety of French and Francophone contexts, such as varying levels of familiarity/formality, etiquette, cuisine and dietary habits, family structures, commerce and the professional world, etc., as well as in cultural products such as film, performances, news, and music. Assignments include class participation, small group and pair work, role play, games, individual and group presentations, written exercises, grammar, dictation, presentations of cultural products such as songs, films, audio texts, a variety of short and simple texts on cultural perspectives, and writing activities.

This course explores art and politics in France from the revolution to the present. Through a multimedia approach including sculptures, paintings, prints, commemorative monuments, architecture, street art, and photographs, it retraces the changing forms that some of the most salient political messages have taken in modern French art. The course follows a chronological progression from Revolution to Empire, followed by the rise and fall of the Second Empire and the resulting thirst for revenge. It then broaches the 20th century, including the politics of the avant-garde, the art of colonialism, and the varied aesthetic responses to the rise of totalitarianism on display at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris and evident in the art of collaboration and resistance produced in Occupied and Vichy France during the Second World War. The art of 1960s countercultural contestation (anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, feminist, etc.) is then studied, before examining recent initiatives in the realm of commemorative art and cultural display that approach issues facing contemporary French society today, such as terrorism and constructively confronting its colonial legacy. The instructional format consists of both lectures and group site visits to museums and monuments throughout the city.

This fifteen-week advanced beginning conversation and grammar course immerses students in the French language and culture through bi-weekly class sessions and occasional instructor-led site visits. The course includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing with a focus on communication. Students have the opportunity to use everything they learn in class as they go about their daily activities. Students can expect to be able to talk about daily life, food, travelling, Paris, and a wide variety of activities. While students are learning how to speak the language, they continue their introduction to the culture of the French-speaking world. To immerse students in the language, only French is spoken in class. Although students are not expected to understand every word, they should try to follow the gist by paying attention to the context. Students find their comprehension increasing as the course progresses. By the end of the course, students are able to understand, perform, and possess the following at a level appropriate to a novice-high learner. Understand the basic structures of French grammar and use the present, and use occasionally the past, near future, and future, of high-frequency regular and irregular verbs, use reflexive verbs to talk about their daily routines, use reciprocal verbs, and use occasionally the imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods, as well as use subject, object, and relative pronouns, articles, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, adverbs, interrogative expressions, negative expressions, idiomatic expressions, expressions of quantity, and time and weather expressions. Possess a basic working vocabulary and engage in short conversations with a sympathetic interlocutor in French, using simple sentences and basic vocabulary, with occasional use of past and future tenses, on familiar topics (such as the academic environment, family, food, and the home environment, habitual activities, memories, travelling and accommodations, facts and beliefs, opinions and emotions, health and illness, friendship, love and romance, etc.) and express their basic everyday needs. Understand information on French and Francophone culture on the following topics: greetings, leisure activities and sports, vacation time, family structures, schooling and values of the French Republic, the distribution of  household chores, environmental protection, cuisine, grocery shopping and eating habits, the workplace, café life, multiethnic society, youth culture, fashion trends, the education system, values, politics, French national identity, the geography and cultural aspects of France’s regions, and the geography, music, and cuisine of the francophone world. Read, understand, and discuss short, non-complex and highly predictable texts, for which there is contextual/extralinguistic support, on familiar topics. Write with some accuracy on familiar topics in simple French, using the recombination of practiced vocabulary and structures to construct sentences. Understand basic French spoken by someone who is sympathetic to non-native and beginning students of French on familiar topics, using context and extralinguistic support to determine meaning. Reflect upon basic cultural differences as reflected in a variety of French and Francophone contexts, such as varying levels of familiarity/formality, etiquette, cuisine and dietary habits, family structures, commerce and the professional world, etc., as well as in cultural products such as film, performances, news, and music.