France

This course, the third in our intensive summer language program sequences, with its contiguous course FR34B, is roughly equivalent to the third and fourth quarters of French language instruction on students' home campuses. FR34A and FR34B provide students who have a working knowledge of the basic skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in French the opportunity to expand and improve these skills with an emphasis on the introduction of new, intermediate-level, forms of grammar and communicative skills within a French-immersion context. Placement in this course is determined by students' previous experience and the results of a language assessment taken prior to arrival. Successful completion of this course combined with FR34B targets the low-Intermediate French level. Course material includes: MOTIFS: AN INRODUCTION TO FRENCH by K. Jansma, Heinle, 5th Edition, 2011. Through the FR34AB sequence, students gain the ability to communicate in spoken and written French and develop a foundation of intermediate French grammar, a working vocabulary, and information on French and Francophone culture including health and illness, 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, and the geography, music and cuisine of the francophone world. Following the 34AB course sequence, students should be able to engage in short conversations in French, using both simple and more complex sentences and vocabulary, with occasional use of past and future tenses as well as conditional and subjunctive moods, on familiar topics and express their basic everyday needs using the indicative, imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods, regular, irregular, and reflexive verbs, as well as use object and relative pronouns, articles, prepositions, possessive and demonstrative adjectives, interrogative expressions, and expressions of quantity. Through the FR34AB sequence, students reflect upon basic cultural differences as reflected in a variety of French and Francophone contexts, such as varying levels of familiarity/formality, etiquette, family structures, relations between men and woman, urban life, social-cultural representations of France, the professional world, the political 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, 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 provides an introduction to finance. The course starts with a brief discussion of the functions of financial systems, an overview of existing financial assets, financial intermediaries and markets, and an introduction to firm types and firms’ financial statements. The first part of the course deals with the time value of money and its applications: understanding interest rates and valuing bonds. The second part addresses investment decisions by firms and explains the basics of project and firm valuation. The course then introduces the notions of risky assets, risky returns, and risk aversion and highlights the benefits of diversification. It presents the foundations of portfolio theory and the central model of equilibrium asset pricing, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, before highlighting some of their important applications. The last part of the course discusses the efficient market hypothesis and the contending theories of behavioral finance. Basic knowledge of probability and statistics is a prerequisite for the course.

This is an intermediate level French language course. Fourth semester French- B1.2. This course is for students who have completed through the B1.1 level of French. At the end of this semester-long course, students are expected to: know how to write texts focusing on simply articulated opinions; write simple, detailed descriptions; tell an anecdote and create a story; write personal letters description experiences, feelings, events, or express their thoughts on an abstract idea; write an administrative letter; summarize a factual event; summarize information from diverse sources; write a simple essay; explain a problem; emphasize certain points; conjugate and use the future tenses (simple future, anterior future), the conditional (present, past), the subjunctive (impersonal simple phrases + subjunctive), expression of feelings, of obligation, possibility + subjunctive, the conjugations of pour que, afin que, avant que + subjunctive, pronominal verbs in the passive. The course covers: nouns, pronouns and indefinite adjectives; adverbs with –ment, phrases(relative pronouns, phrases with “if”); speech Lexical content; Diplomacy careers; Europe; talk about numbered date; define a political group; United Nations; express oneself (to talk about an event in the past); describe with precision a place, a person, an object; develop an argument; formulate a hypothesis; evaluate a possibility (doubt, certainty, possibility); introduce, develop arguments, categorize by hierarchy, conclude; expose reasons and explanations of opinions, projects and actions; explain a phenomenon/fact/societal event/natural phenomenon; take part in a conversation, start or restart one; exchange information, negotiate, ask or give advice/tips/a favor/an authorization; express a feeling (surprise, joy, sadness, curiosity, indifference), an emotion, tastes; give or ask for a personal point of view, express one's agreement or disagreement, to explain why something is a problem and discuss how to find solutions, in a formal or informal framework; lead or join a discussion, use an adequate expression to take over the conversation, invite someone to join in the conversation or give their point of view, sum up during a conversation, ask someone to clarify or further develop a point; sum up a short story, an article, a presentation, an interview (synthesize and reformulate); recount a speech.

This course introduces the main contemporary debates around human reproduction and discusses their potential impact on society, particularly as regards gender roles and family diversity. The course reflects on issues such as the possibility of diverse families and individuals to have children by using assisted reproductive technologies, the question of whether surrogate motherhood or social egg freezing are liberating or on the contrary oppressive for women, and the social implication of whether parents should be allowed to choose some attributes of their future offspring (such as eye color, height, or IQ) if able to do so. The course explores how current events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine have impacted the reproductive rights of various categories of individuals and the regulation of human reproduction in different countries, as well as at international level. The course builds on several disciplines, particularly law, gender studies, sociology, and bioethics. It discusses court cases (especially from the European Court of Human Rights), pieces of legislation, media articles and videos, and sociological and philosophical writings and other sources. Students work on topics related to human reproduction as policy makers, law makers, or gender and LGBT+ human rights specialists.

This course provides a France-centric view of medieval history in Europe, from the fall of Rome until the Renaissance, focusing specifically on the prevailing secular and religious powers at the time. It examines the political, geographical, religious, and social life of these medieval societies in both their both local and relational contexts. The course includes a comprehensive look at Charlemagne, the Carolingian Empire, and the Frankish clergy, and explores how their influence defined the Early Middle Ages.