Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

Based on the most recent research, this class retraces the modern history of homosexuality in European and American societies since the late eighteenth century, not only as an individual and collective experience, but also as a medical and theoretical concept, and a social battlefield. The progression is roughly chronological but also focuses on specific issues such as the legal situation of homosexuals, the medical and psychological discourses on homosexuality, the common ground and differences between the history of male and female homosexuality, the role of art, literature, and urban life in shaping homosexual identity and subculture. The course considers how and why Western countries shifted from condemnation to acceptation, though past prejudice and stigma still interfere with the present.

This introductory course in social psychology presents the methodological and theoretical issues of the discipline through the acquisition of historical, empirical, and analytical reference points. It explores major issues specific to contemporary societies, such as the formation of norms, social identity, and submission to authority. In particular, the course focuses on the phenomena known as “crowd psychology,” at the crossroads of individual and collective psychology. It explores the specific issues and reasoning in "crowd psychology" through authors, trends, and concrete experiences.

This workshop is for students at the C1/C2 level of French. It improves written, oral, listening, and text skills through studies of specific themes. The course looks first at traditional notions of culture and civilization, then redefines the new societal challenges which are crucial and omnipresent, looking at social and political events to analyze their trajectories in today's world. Students learn to understand critical texts, analyze societal questions, present on varying viewpoints, and debate on diverse subjects.

This course provides an analytical framework for understanding Turkey's foreign policy in its geographical environment from 2002 to the present. The regions covered are the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean basin, and the Black Sea. The course is divided into two chronological phases: from 2002 to 2011, when Turkey based its power strategy primarily on soft power; and from 2011 to the present day, when the outbreak of the Syrian civil war has seen the militarization of Turkish foreign policy. The course is transversal and addresses many themes related to history, geography, economics, sociology, and international law as tools for the analysis of international relations.

This is a history of contextual thinking. Thus, although the chronological structure of this course allows us to discuss the main developments in economic theory from the marginalist revolution (1870s-90s) to the end of the 20th century, it places these developments in the general context of ideas and, above all, in the social and political context that promotes or hinders the spread of competing approaches to economics. Particular attention is paid to the historical conditions in which policies are in agreement or contradiction with the findings of economic science. Efforts are also made to draw parallels between contemporary debates on economic policy and the way in which these same debates unfolded in the previous century.

This course explores the role of the citizen within contemporary democratic processes. It draws on insights from political sociology and comparative politics to answer essential questions regarding continuity and change on issues such as vote choice, political participation, public protest, trust in the political system, ideological orientations, and political attitudes. Special emphasis is placed on the impact of the economic crisis on the changing preferences and behaviors of mass publics across Europe. The course develops the students' analytical skills in comprehending current political events, public opinion, new social movements, and current electoral dynamics from a comparative perspective. Each session of the course draws on theoretical concepts and links them to empirical findings using comparative, time-series survey data. Students are invited to critically combine theoretical tools with empirical evidence in order to comprehend the dynamic link between public opinion and political parties in postmodern Western democracies.