France

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.

This course provides a solid overview of the law of international security, a set of rules regulating the maintenance and restoration of international peace and security, within which States and other actors exercise their policies, adopt decisions, and form mutual relations on the international scene. It covers international legal norms and to applies them to concrete cases in the world politics. The course sheds light both on the centralized international and decentralized regional levels of collective security mechanisms. In addition to the prerogatives of the United Nations, the role of the NATO, European Union, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, African Union, Economic Community of West African States, and Organization of American States is covered. It focuses on diverse measures aimed at the protection of international security, both involving and not involving the use of force (economic embargoes, targeted sanctions, interruption of diplomatic relations and, finally, the recourse to military force).