Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

This course is a study of the history of Israel as seen through films. The course examines various angles of the socio-political reality displayed in both fiction and documentary films. From the early twentieth century in Palestine and onwards in Israel, mainly through Israeli cinema, a flourishing industry nowadays, as well as through foreign cinema, the course covers the main events that shaped and continue to shape the reality of this young state: the historical events that led to its foundation, the wars which drew its borders, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and its multi-cultural identity.

This course introduces the theoretical and methodological approaches of Disability Studies, an expanding field that is not yet well enough known in France. It is organized in twelve themed sessions focusing on conceptual models used in studying disability, the history of legislative and social policy for impaired persons, and representations of disability in literature, the arts, and new media. The course offers a particularly worthwhile addition to the skillset of students preparing for careers in law, public administration, education, or social work.

This course introduces the enterprise of comparative constitutional law as a judicial practice and as a field of academic study. It compares, across various constitutional systems, issues of constitutional structure, judicial review, separation of powers, constitutional interpretation, constitutional amendments, and individual rights. Additionally, the course considers various approaches that have been used to solve similar constitutional problems, with special attention given to equality, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and the recognition and adjudication of social and economic rights.

Using case studies from various domains (environment, health, technological and industrial accidents, security, new technologies) and countries, this course explores how social sciences have conceptualized risk over time and how risk has become a central object of political attention. It considers how the notion of risk has become a central concern of today's societies, as Ulrich Beck predicted in the 1990s; and how the language and techniques of risk analysis, first developed in the realm of insurance, have become key to modern governance and to the operation of contemporary states. The course explores how global crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, have further reinforced a perception that risks are essential components of our daily lives and major concerns for governments. 

This course provides an overview of international law and its approach to several burning security issues of global scope, including terrorism, forced displacement, cyberwarfare, pandemics, and disinformation. This thematic overview imparts a basic understanding of the international legal landscape surrounding current security policy conversations, while reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of international law. In the process, the course also exposes most branches of international law, including the law regulating armed conflict and the use of force, human rights law, refugee law, and international criminal law.

This course introduces the main currents of thinking on capitalism in recent social theory. It provides an understanding of global capitalism's institutional diversity and dynamics and the historical transformations of the global economic order since the 1970s. The course navigates the complexity of today's economic world using structured theoretical thinking.