France

This course studies theoretical texts regarding communication and media from a sociological standpoint. The course takes both a theoretical and methodological approach to analyzing communication and media.

This course examines the relationship with history using a perpetual round-trip between modern times and its challenges. Modern representations are based on numerous Greek and Roman categories, but the terms "democracy" and "republic,” and the historical relationship with the body, sexuality, religion, and the environment, have been used with various means to an end, depending on immediate news or justification of interests with certain groups. Historical figures have thus become hostages in a world looking for landmarks. Using historical documents (texts, images, films, series) and contemporary sources, this course begins with current problems (the pandemic, democracy in crisis, the refugee issue, the #Metoo movement) to examine their supposed relationship with the antique world, before moving towards a critical reading of the habits we now have that existed during ancient times.

This course introduces the looming energy challenges faced by the world economic system, as access and control of energy resources are a key stake in the world's geopolitics while climate change issues, resource scarcity, and their foreseen impacts drive the existing energy model to a potential crisis. The first part of the course examines the links between energy systems and social and economic models of our societies. It then explores the current energy transition dynamic and assesses its perspectives and impacts by studying different scales. The last part of the course addresses the ongoing changes in energy geopolitics and their links with climate issues.

This course provides an introduction to the existence of phonetic variation and change in modern English, as well as tools to detect and analyze this variation. Far from being a theoretical course on the major changes that took place in the history of English, this course focuses on language as can be directly accessed using recent and contemporary sources and tools. The first part of the course discusses how pronunciation was indicated in older dictionaries as objects of knowledge and culture, starting from 16th and 17th century books, and mainly focusing on 18th to 20th century dictionaries. The second part investigates how a collection of dictionaries from various periods can be used as a relevant corpus to identify and explain phonetic variation and change in present-day English as well as from a historical perspective, including the way new linguistic features can be born and spread through the language. The final part of the course demonstrates how to collect, annotate, and analyze oral English. It includes an introduction to the use of the speech analysis software PRAAT.

This course focuses on the general economic structure of cinema and the audiovisual industry in France. It includes an overview of the production of cinematic film, the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Moving Images), and the financing and distribution of films. The course includes industry professionals as guest speakers.

This is an advanced course considering the economic forces that govern the geographic distribution of economic activity and its implications for economic outcomes and public policy issues. The course is divided in two parts. The first part develops a simple theory of cities as the result of the interaction between agglomeration and congestion forces. It proceeds to study in detail the agglomeration forces that attract firms, consumers, and workers to cities, as well as the congestion forces that limit the size of cities and how to overcome them through transportation networks and housing markets. The second part of the course extends the basic model to study a system of many locations, the dynamics of city growth and decline, and to conclude, the role of cities and geography for climate change.

This course examines gender and its critical intersections with power in contemporary social and political life. It reflects on key definitions, ideas, debates, and controversies in gender studies, using an interdisciplinary set of readings in history, sociology, anthropology, international relations, political science, literary studies, and critical theory. Some questions that considered include: How are gender and sex being explained as natural and social phenomena? In what ways is gender interacting with other social identities e.g. sexuality, ethnicity, class, and nationality? How is gender shaping individual identity and popular culture?