France

This course is concerned with how public problems are formed and framed. It considers how public problems become, or do not become, items on the public agenda in order to lead to policy development. After introducing the notion of agenda setting, the course develops the social problem approach, and then exposes leading concepts to explain the character of the agenda in modern times.

This course offers an introduction to the study of comparative politics. It addresses some of the discipline's most important questions: Why are some countries democratic, while others are not? Does democracy improve the well-being of its citizens? Do elections identify the general will? Are constitutional courts necessary to enforce the constitution? Does democracy help combat economic inequality? Do social networks accentuate political polarization? The course approaches these questions in a scientific way, introducing the main difficulties researchers face when studying politics. Can we identify causal relationships in politics? Which units of analysis need to be compared in order to draw meaningful conclusions? In doing so, the course examines how science is always about comparison, but understanding which comparisons are relevant and which are not requires a lot of consideration.

This course provides a social history of the ideas that radically questioned the construction of modern states in Europe and the world and the social and economic order that underlies them. It places these ideas in their context while highlighting their internal logic, from the revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries to contemporary popular uprisings. In particular, the course focuses on the way in which these ideas are articulated in ideologies, carried by collective actors, based on knowledge that is both scholarly and profane and aimed at hegemony. It analyzes how these ideas circulate between different social and national spaces and are received and retranslated there.

This course investigates the Earth’s environment over its geological past. It dives into historical geological timescales to better understand the climate and geography of the planet and its interactions with organisms.

This advanced intermediate course improves communicative skills in oral French. It consists of 3 parts: oral production, phonetics and pronunciation, and listening comprehension. Oral production involves interaction in class on topics related to daily life and immediate environment (sketches, dialogues). Phonetics and pronunciation includes sound recognition, pronunciation exercises, and reading. Listening comprehension focuses on listening and analysis of everyday messages and lexicon. The course develops French oral skills to reach a B2 level (comprehension, production). It provides an opportunity to practice the French language in a relaxed atmosphere, without fear of making mistakes.

This course, the fifth in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its contiguous course FR56B, is roughly equivalent to the fifth and sixth quarters of French language instruction on students’ home campuses. FR56A and FR56B provide students who have completed more than 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 FR56AB sequence course, students gain the ability to communicate in spoken and written French and develop a understanding of intermediate French grammar points and a working vocabulary of information on French and Francophone culture including family structures, the distribution of household chores, housing, health, politics, the education system, leisure activities, the arts, multicultural society, and vernacular French. Following the 56AB course sequence, students should be able to use all the verb tenses of high-frequency regular and irregular verbs including reflexive verbs, use the indicative, imperative, conditional, subjunctive and infinitive moods, as well as use subject, stressed and object pronouns, articles, expressions of quantity, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, negative and interrogative expressions, relative pronouns, hypothetical sentences and the passive voice at the high-intermediate level. Students apply aspects of French grammar (such as verb tense, mode and conjugation) to written and oral communication, engage in conversations in French on familiar topics and express their basic everyday needs, and discuss themes presented in contemporary French culture and society. Students are required to do 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 2½ - 3 page compositions. Additionally students are encourage to 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 provides an exploratory analysis of gender and inequality studies through the disciplines of political science, economics, and history. The first part is dedicated to the description of socioeconomic inequalities between men and women in a variety of dimensions. Evaluations of public policies which focus on family life and professional life are presented. The second part focuses on the wealth and complexity of expressions and words used to talk about inequality. The course then looks at the manner in which inequality between the sexes is political. Lastly, a historical approach of the feminist movements rounds out the analysis.