France

This course teaches a technical mastery of photography, the journalistic narrative through images, and the critical reading of photojournalism published in the press. It studies fundamental technical concepts (focal lengths, diaphragm, speed, sensitivity), the narrative structure of a photojournalistic story, the deontological discussion of the photo taking, the critical reading of image making, and the basics of digital image processing. The course provides the skills to create, develop, and tell critical journalistic stories using photography as a means of expression.

This course in oral production is intended to improve engagement in conversations through the practice of pronunciation and through the expansion of vocabulary. It includes an approach to phonetics.

This course provides a reflection on Teaching-Learning Theories for foreign languages and their applications in secondary education. It focuses on Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

This course examines French and Francophone cultural productions since the end of the Second World War, a traumatic event that transformed and deeply marked France’s society. It focuses on the evolutions of French national identity and diverse representations of it in a context of decolonization, European dynamics, and globalization. The concept of national identity is challenged by multicultural and immigrant populations that shift our understanding of “French” towards a transnational perspective. The critical urgency of this issue of definition is underlined by increasing political tensions in France that are also accentuated by the growing demands for new public commemorations that seek to acknowledge silenced, wounded memories and that, in doing so, may further divide society. The course examines how dissent about French identity revives democracy while paradoxically undoing national borders. It progresses chronologically, starting with post-War liberations from the margins: women (feminism), colonials (decolonization), youth, and other social identities (May 1968). It then analyzes how these forms of gender, ethnic, and social otherness persist or were dealt with in the 70s and 80s. The course also takes a close look at the geographical and spatial fractures that weigh upon French society. Finally, it addresses today’s issues concerning the education system, in particular the teaching of history, the unprecedented economic crisis, old age, climate change, Islam, Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, the attacks in Paris in 2015, and the refugee crisis.
 

This course presents and discusses contemporary new propaganda techniques and their applications in various political and national conditions. It introduces the basic concepts of classic propaganda, beginning with an explanation of the classic definitions, and continues with the recent studies in which propaganda is identified as non-consensual, not informed, and/or not free organized persuasive communication. The course covers the history of propaganda using the perspectives of both war and peace times, including the establishment of the influential department of the Curia in Catholic Church in 1622 (Propaganda Fide), the 20th century phenomena of fascist and communist propaganda, as well as more recent information warfare and hybrid wars in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Propaganda techniques are analyzed using the examples of, among others, the information-psychological operations from Russia and the American public diplomacy. Additionally, the propaganda operations that accompanied the military conflicts in Middle East and North Africa are covered. The course discusses the role of the traditional and new media, especially social media, in propaganda wars, as well as the relationship between marketing, public relations, and propaganda.

This course focuses on sociological concepts and methods through the lens of the city. It applies sociological concepts to the city that can be seen while walking around, such as the city of buildings and people; and those less noticeable, such as the city of sentiments, conflict, traffic flows, bike messengers, sewage networks, asset prices and municipal taxation, and animals and nature. This course uses key sociological readings, case studies, and topics in the news to study the city as a complex space where buildings, people, animals, laws, policies, and international financial flows intersect to produce our lived experience. It focuses on close reading of texts, understanding the key argument of each text, and applying concepts to the real world; and covers the key strategies and skills of academic writing as students produce a research paper based on a city of their choice. The first part of the course explores foundational texts, while the rest of the course addresses specific questions related to housing markets, social policy, violence, drugs, environmental change, segregation, urban infrastructure, and urban regulations.