University of Bordeaux

This course studies and analyzes anthropological aspects of the modern world, including sports, video games, movies, and social media, among others. From an ethnographic point of view, it examines how these aspects manifest themselves in the world both culturally and socially.

This course explores the literary and artistic foundations that contribute to the construction of the cultural space and the politics we inhabit. It examines how sources are managed, interpreted, and renewed over time; the architecture and art they inspired; and how they have been adapted to the religious and political installation of Christianity; all of which have informed our unique identity today. The French model is at the center of these lineaments of cultural anthropology. The artistic representations (literary, pictorial, architectural) that endure over time reveal how people in the Middle Ages viewed the world and will influence the identity of future European nations over time.

The course presents the major questions and themes around which the social sciences have built a view of psychiatry and mental health. It discusses mental illnesses and societies, including the history of mental illness in our societies, the link between mental illnesses and social dynamics, and social distribution of mental illnesses and disorders. The course then reviews the sociology of mental illness and the mentally ill, including the experience of the illness, social and political treatment of the sick, and social mobilization around the illness. It explores new epidemics of mental health disorders (Autism, ADHD, depression, stress), the role of diagnostic tools and pharmaceutical laboratories, and social demand for mental health. The course then covers the sociology of psychoanalysis (theories, market, public, professional trajectories); asylum, coercion, and consent (organization, confinement, patient rights, ethics); and the political uses of psychiatry in a totalitarian situation (Soviet Russia, control of slaves, elimination of dissidents).

This course explores the emergence and transformations of women’s cinema in Britain since the 1950s, with a focus on the contemporary period. It examines the position of women directors within the film industry (mainstream productions and art films) as well as their appropriation of genre and history.

This course explores French language through the medium of the radio. It discusses the various types of podcasts and examines the forms that these can take. Students write scripts which are then made into a podcast for the final project. The course provides an opportunity to learn and use sound and podcast software.

This course considers how European integration has affected European citizens, their identities, their resistances, and collective representations. It analyzes the construction of the European Union as a community and as a political order with particular emphasis on its social and political dimensions. To understand the reactions of ordinary citizens towards European integration, and in addition to the existing explanatory strands focusing on interests and institutions, the political sociology of the EU questions the weight of socio-political variables that hinder or favor the Europeanization of European societies. Topics under scrutiny include: the modes of interaction between elites and masses at the EU level; citizen identifications' levels and models to understand the attitudes of citizens towards European integration; the process of (de-)politicization of European integration; and the impact of Europeanization (mainly in terms of public policies) on European public opinion. 

This course focuses on the climate crisis and, more broadly, the ecological issues, environmental struggles, and social movements that participate in it. It studies how sociology has taken hold of ecological problems (subjects, issues, methodologies), notions and concepts (risks, Anthropocene, transition/transformation, environmental inequalities, justice), and theoretical frameworks to identify the postures (scientific, ethical, committed, neutral) endorsed by sociologists. The course first reinscribes these current dynamics of mobilizations and research in a double chronology: that of environmental struggles and that of the constitution of a sociological field dedicated to the environment. It then considers recent works on environmental policies and controversies relating to industrial and agricultural pollution to illustrate scientific results and actions that sociological approaches can produce on issues of environmental justice.

This French language course consolidates the basics in oral and written French. It improves the four competencies: written production, written comprehension, oral production, and oral comprehension. Written production involves writing short texts respecting coherence and cohesion using the tenses (past, present, future) and introducing the notions of cause, purpose, and obligation. Written comprehension focuses on understanding short texts on daily life and activities with the past and present tenses. Oral production practices addressing someone to ask for information and precisions on facts. Oral comprehension practices understanding simple or more complex conversations on present daily life and on past events.

This course presents the various methods and techniques of psychological evaluation.

The course is broken into three parts. The first part focuses on the science of vision, covering early theories and anatomical observations, the eyes’ dark adaptation functions, visual organization (size, shape, orientation, and spatial frequency shown with illusions and clinical testing of the limits of vision), and vision impacting memory. The second part focuses on a linguistic aspect showcasing auditory anatomy and vocal anatomy. It describes the science behind how sound is measured and differentiated and how language is produced and understood; and observes language by breaking down the elements of sound and signing into primitives diving into phonemes, phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. There are also demonstrations of early cognitive development showing how plastic young brains are compared to their adult counterparts. The last part of the course is about language and memory. It focuses on comprehending text and writing and covers theories of how humans developed and started using written language as it is a relatively young invention in the history of the earth and humanity. The course reviews the role of comprehending knowledge and discusses the biological systems that make up and help our understanding of language.