France

This course offers a historical perspective on the development of the European Union and its close associates yet not formally members of the Union. The EU is usually approached and studied as an administrative and legal construct. In this lecture series by contrast, the emergence and
development of this singular polity is examined in the variety of its manifestations: economic as well as political and cultural.

This B2 level course is for students who have completed up to French level B1. It consolidates, activates, and expands knowledge and skills in French and acquires French academic methodology. The course develops skills to talk about one's experience in Lyon, drawing on intercultural skills; gives a presentation and write an argumentative essay, using the methodology used in France, (identifying an issue, creating an outline, introduction, conclusion); talk about Lyon and certain customs and current events in Lyon; understand current French issues by activating solid French cultural knowledge; express oneself effectively by drawing on solid knowledge of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary (anaphoric repetitions, complex sentences, words of speech); argue effectively in French (argumentative tools: subjunctive); write an argumentative essay; debate a current topic; understand primary-source written and audio materials. 

This course is based on the France Culture Novel Prize wherein students vote informally for one of the novels in the selection. Various exercises and discussions refine literary sensibility and critical thinking in order to choose the winning novel.  Throughout the semester, students progress through the readings and are invited to complete a personal reading journal. Discussion includes what makes a good novel, literary criticism, the origins of literary prizes, how to lead a literary discussion, reflection and debate, reading and analysis of excerpts, institutions behind the literary canon. The course includes meetings with the authors.

This course covers the different periods of collaboration between the United States and the United Kingdom in various domains (such as politics, economics, diplomacy, defense, culture) from the origins until now, with a sharp focus on the 1945-2025 period. It discusses foreign policy-making and provides an overview of the current state of the relationship. The course analyzes foreign policies with the recurring strategic features for each country concerned, and assesses crisis management and resolution options as regards complex defense and security issues.

The Lyon 2 University Orchestra focuses on performing works from the classical repertoire (Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Bizet, Beethoven, Gershwin, Offenbach, Mendelssohn, Carl Orff, Mozart) but also regularly performs the greatest film music themes (Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Atlantis, Lord of the Rings) as well as works by composers from the 20th century and beyond, and student compositions from the professional master's program. The orchestra now specializes in film concerts. The Lyon 2 Orchestral Ensemble performs in venues in the Lyon region such as the Théâtre de l'Astrée, the Salle de l'Arbuel (Condrieu), the amphitheater of the Opéra de Lyon, the Amphi Culturel (Bron), Espace Culturel de l'Alpha (Charbonnières), and the Grand Amphi of Lyon 2 University.

This course provides both a base of knowledge on the foreign policy of the United States and an in-depth study on specific themes. It examines the pillars of U.S. foreign policy through the lens of current events (counterterrorism operations in 2021 and the war in Ukraine since February 2022). It covers elements concerning American foreign policy, its issues, its institutions, its legal framework, the governance of the main presidents, the major schools of thought participating in strategic decision-making, the concrete use of the defense and security tool since 1945 and the dilemmas posed to American power by the evolution of the contemporary world. It also discusses the national security enterprise, the major intellectual currents in American foreign policy, the main American commitments, and the future of American leadership. Thus armed with a more detailed knowledge of the terms of the debate, students better understand and analyze the workings of international news and have the necessary references to enter a professional environment concerned by the international policy of the United States. Other topics include containment; roll back; New Look Policy; peaceful coexistence; domino theory; graduated response; MAD; Star Wars; Bush-Rumsfeld Doctrine; Obama's New Beginning & Reset.

This course explores the architecture and politics behind global finance, and how it can be reformed to address the world's most urgent needs: climate change, inequality, debt sustainability, and beyond. The challenge today isn't just what we fund, but how we fund it. Through a mix of academic literature, case studies, student-led presentations, and guest lectures by senior experts from leading institutions, the course explores which actors shape the global economy, how they wield their influence, and what it would take to reform them.

This course focuses on race, discrimination, and racial inequalities. The course addresses three key questions: what is race as perceived in the U.S. and Europe, and what are the sources of racial inequalities; what does social science research tell us about patterns and trends of racial inequalities; and what policies can alleviate racial inequalities? The course systematically adopts comparative perspectives focusing on the North American and European contexts. It also addresses research on race and racial inequality within an interdisciplinary lens particularly building on sociology, economics, and social psychology.

This course explores the ambiguous connections between population dynamics and climate change. After a lecture-based acquisition of basic knowledge in the field of demography, the course studies the link between climate change and population dynamics in an interactive way by discussing scientific articles. It discusses which demographic dynamics linked to fertility, mortality, and migration impact environmental changes. Hereby, the course considers questions such as how far climate change can be explained by population growth; whether demographic pressure helps adapting more quickly to climate change; and which regions are the most responsible for climate change, in economic and demographic terms. A particular focus is determining which populations are most vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation. Based on this fundamental knowledge, it discusses possible actions to dramatically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and further deterioration of the environment as well as to protect the most exposed and vulnerable populations. It tackles climate-change related education, access to reproductive health care and family planning, gender equality in education and economic participation, investments in public health care services and technical improvements. This allow students to answer questions about what policies should be recommended to alleviate climate change, in the light of population growth and population aging, and which best-practice examples exist that help mitigating the effects of climate change for the most vulnerable.

At a time when liberal democracies are weakened by ideological polarization and the rise of populist movements challenging institutional checks and balances as well as the foundations of rational debate (Trumpism, the Bolsonaro episode, the AfD, etc.), it is becoming vital for future political, administrative, and academic leaders—who are often unfamiliar with scientific fundamentals, particularly in statistics—to acquire a basic grasp of such tools in order to define a framework for contributing to informed debate and evidence-based decision-making. This course provides them with that foundation through the lens of mathematical modeling. Concretely, it offers a rigorous methodology and a practical introduction to statistical modeling, taught through its logical application in structuring arguments and fostering debate. The objective is to equip students with practical tools that will allow them to analyze, interpret, and critically assess the use of data in their future professional environments, whether in strategy, economics, consulting, or public affairs management. With the help of AI-assisted applications, students learn to build, and interpret simple economic models, while developing a critical stance on the limitations and biases inherent in these models. The econometric article by Daron Acemoglu, recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize, serves as one of the course's central threads, alongside more operational examples drawn from the corporate world and public sector. Through these applications, the course also offers students keys to understanding the mathematical foundations behind how artificial intelligence operates. The overarching ambition of this course is to enable students to become autonomous, clear-sighted, and critical actors in the use of data—capable of shaping the framework of public debate and decision-making at a time when perceptions of reality are increasingly influenced and polarized by the subjective interpretations of both populist opinion leaders and the prophets of artificial intelligence and big data.