France

Paris, the most visited city in the world, is both a historical city and a modern global capital that fashionably wears the old and the new on its sleeve. It is also home to Parisians, whose clichéd image has been shaped in cultural imaginaries from around the globe, but whose identities and cultures are increasingly plural. The city and language course poses this two-fold question: just who is this city for, and how does one unlock its levels? More than a picturesque concentration of streets and buildings, Paris's urban landscape provides a tableau upon which people have inscribed meaning, message, and significance to state, nation, and culture. To decipher these messages and gain an understanding of Paris's history and the French culture that has shaped it, this course examines the histories of the conception, construction, and public perception of Parisian sites and it places their stories within the larger context of the development of French identity. The city and language course introduces students to French history, culture, and language through team-taught instruction. In the “Pursuing Paris” sessions, students study French history and culture by visiting sites important to the evolution of the capital city—these sessions are taught in English. In the “Unlocking French” sessions, students practice targeted language skills through situational communication with opportunities to use everything they learn in daily activities.

Paris has long been recognized as a center for both revolutionary activism and innovative artistic production. This course explores the coming together of these two domains through diverse visual manifestations of social justice and advocacy produced and/or displayed in Paris from the Revolution to the present, including painting, sculpture, architecture, performance, installations, photography, video, posters, graffiti, and street art. Students explore the ways in which the urban landscape bears the scars of revolutionary destruction and serves as a showcase for politically engaged production, housed in its museums or visible to all on the streets. The instructional format consists of both lectures and group site visits throughout the city, to venues including public and private museums, which are studied both for their content, architecture, and their politics of display; galleries, artist collectives, and Parisian neighborhoods with outdoor art displays.

This course presents an overview of the major Sunni and Shiite Islamist organizations that have developed and spread throughout the twentieth century. Through the cases of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Jama‘at ul-Tabligh in India, the Hizb al-Tahrir in Palestine, the Islamic Da‘wa Party in Iraq, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and even the afghan origins of al-Qaeda, the course explores the origins, ideology, social bases, and actions of these organizations, as well as their various forms of transnationalization in the Muslim world. The circulation of actors and ideas are particularly developed in order to highlight the anchoring of Islamism in an increasingly globalized space.