University of Bordeaux

This course presents the different ways in which 20th‑century anthropology has studied forms of political organization around the world. After establishing the universality of politics, anthropology has sought to examine societies’ relationships to the state—that is, the variability of cultural choices regarding the centralization or decentralization of power. The course also explores anthropology’s relationship to colonialism, neo‑colonialism, and post‑colonialism, from the late 19th century to the present day. In addition, it introduces a more materialist approach to politics, emphasizing the importance of the production and circulation of material wealth in the political organization of societies. The course concludes with an outlook toward further study, while highlighting how political anthropology is practiced in the 21st century.

This course examines the criteria used to define and describe syntactic units, with particular attention to the distinction between a logical‑grammatical approach and a rhetorical‑hermeneutic approach. These theoretical distinctions are explored through analytical exercises based on a variety of texts representing different discourse types and genres.

This is an interdisciplinary, project‑based course designed to introduce the principles, methods, and communication practices of modern scientific research. Through a flipped‑classroom approach, the course actively explores how different disciplines—such as biology, informatics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science—intersect to address complex scientific questions. Throughout the course, students work in small subgroups to build and communicate a scientific project. They learn how to identify and evaluate scientific literature, analyze research methodologies across fields, and critically assess the validity, reproducibility, and interpretation of results. Students develop strong skills in teamwork, scientific reasoning, and oral communication as they prepare an interdisciplinary presentation aimed at both specialists and non‑specialists. A major component of the course is the construction of a final oral presentation based on recent scientific publications. Students progressively refine their project through guided tutorials led by instructors from multiple disciplines. They also practice writing concise research abstracts, critically reading scientific articles, and using research tools such as PubMed and AI‑assisted platforms—while assessing their benefits and limitations. By the end of the course, students gain practical experience in the entire scientific communication pipeline: exploring a topic, building a multidisciplinary understanding of its methods, and presenting their findings clearly and rigorously to a diverse scientific audience.

This course examines how a transnational poetic and artistic movement emerged in response to the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The assassination of Federico García Lorca catalyzed a broad mobilization of Spanish poets and, soon after, of international writers and artists such as Pablo Picasso, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Pablo Neruda, W. H. Auden, Louis Aragon, and Paul Éluard in support of the Republican cause. Through close readings of works by García Lorca, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti, and Neruda—written within or in reaction to the conflict—the course analyzes how poetry confronts historical crisis and transforms political events into aesthetic expression. In parallel, it studies the formation of institutions and networks that united artists worldwide, using this “artistic international” as a framework to reflect on the historical role of poets, translators, and visual artists.

This course covers how modern computers operate and how to program them efficiently by making optimal use of their capabilities. The lectures introduce the internal functioning of computers through a progressive approach to fundamental concepts, organized into three main stages. First, it introduces machine‑level programming, including binary and hexadecimal arithmetic (signed and unsigned), and the use of registers, memory, and the stack. The second stage focuses on digital electronics, covering Boolean algebra and logic functions, as well as the design of memory circuits and data paths. The final stage examines processor design, including instruction encoding and the wiring of the processor data path. Tutorial sessions deepen understanding through paper‑based problem solving, emphasizing conceptual reasoning without the need for a physical computer. Practical sessions provide hands‑on experience using educational simulators that correspond to the three phases of the course: execution of simplified machine‑language programs, design of digital electronic circuits, and processor wiring simulation, allowing students to modify and experiment with instruction sets.