History

The 20th century was marked by the clash of ideologies—fascism, Nazism, communism—and unprecedented violence. Its literary history, in turn, was shaped by bold formal experimentation (modernism) and the emergence of voices from regions and groups previously underrepresented. Through literature, particularly the novel, the course examines how writers grappled with this apocalyptic century. The novel, with its focus on individual experience and narrative complexity, provides a unique, non-ideological lens to engage with reality and history. It studies it through works by Dostoevsky, Conrad, Virginia Woolf, Kafka, Kundera, Garcia Marquez, Achebe and others.

This course argues for the importance of animals in the history of human society and culture. It examines the evolution of human and animal relationships, the role of animals in agriculture and society, animals in war, conquest, and empire, and the interconnected histories of human, animal, and environmental health. It analyzes the historical construction of the categories of "human" and "animal," and its implications for medicine, science, and animal rights. Themes examined include a history of domestication, animals as vectors of illness and plague in the Middle Ages, the Scientific Revolution and animal experimentation, the discovery of America and the Columbian Exchange, the emergence of animal rights in the 19th century, and animals, extinction, and climate change in the 20th and 21st centuries. 

This course offers a survey of the rise and fall of successive French imperial systems, from the creation of an American New France in the seventeenth century until the crisis in France's African sphere of influence today. Adopting a global perspective, it focuses on the role of external and local constraints – from rivalry with the British Empire to various types of indigenous resistance – rather than internal expansionist impulses in shaping the course of French imperial history. Special attention is paid to the role of racial distinctions, in a comparative perspective with other European empires. Topics covered include the collapse of the early modern and Napoleonic empires, the liberal reinvention of empire, colonial governance, and decolonization.

This course considers the issues of the contemporary world, in the light of the historical experiences of the last century and the current century. It is based on political history in the broadest sense, including social and cultural, economic and environmental issues, and informed by the work of other social sciences. The angle adopted focuses on the tensions between the quest for equality, the persistence and reconstruction of hierarchies, and the vigor of emancipation movements. These themes are addressed at the level of individuals, groups and states, in both domestic and international contexts, in close connection with the issues of violence, wars, and conflicts that punctuated the “short twentieth century”. Particular attention is paid to the global dimension of these phenomena, in the so-called “North” and “South” countries, before and after decolonization. The methodology emphasizes the reading and analysis of primary historical sources.

This course explores, giving them voice, how aboriginal Americans (also named First Nations, Tribal groups, Indigenous People, or Native-Americans) relentlessly attempted to “unsettle” their land and exposed the connectedness between violence to the earth and violence towards them. Far from feeding the trope of the “Indians in harmony with nature,” this course examines how their demand to preserve the ecological integrity of the land has been an act of political resistance. It develops a historical perspective on the specificity of Indigenous environmentalism in the United States, for the “healing” of land, non-human life and natural resources has been inherently tied to the ongoing land grabbing and exploitation of their territories. Ranging from History to Anthropology, Native-American Studies and Environmental History, this class historicize indigenous vulnerabilities to extreme weather, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and pollution from manufacturing and resource extraction. It engages in weekly conversations to unpack the ongoing struggle that indigenous and black communities have fought for the preservation of the right to bury their dead, breathe, and survive.

Revolutions, revolts, social unrest, strikes, modern street demonstrations and violent episodes are commonplace in the French historical landscape. On the other hand, the French political “laboratory” is remarkable by the number and the diversity of its institutional experiments through political regimes as opposed as Monarchy, Parliamentary Republic, Presidential Republic and even “Empire”' (under the Bonaparte). What is the most relevant feature: Revolution or Reform? People's Power in the streets or Elected assemblies? Popular voice or a sense of compromise driven by official institutions? Where Democracy ought to be situated: on the top of Barricades or within the routine of State-run policies? This course offers an historical journey through the multiple episodes of the French “instability”, from the Revolution of 1789 to our time. The course is open to all students and does not require prior knowledge with French political history.

This course provides a general overview of indigenous groups during the Postclassic period, prior to the first Hispanic expeditions in the territory.  The course offers a series of basic methodological and monographic tools for the study of the Indigenous past, which is considered the foundation of Mexican History. The course aims to provide a general overview of the Epiclassical period, and the Postclassic in Mesoamerica; provide the tools and basic concepts for the study of ancient México, and to bring one closer closer to the documentary corpus written during the New Spain period, through which Mesoamerican cultures can be studied.

This course provides a transnational and comparative overview of Jewish life in postwar France and the United States. These two countries emerged as home to the largest Jewish populations in the world outside of the State of Israel after 1945. Despite important differences between them, both France and the United States are built on a rational, voluntaristic and ethnically neutral concept of citizenship. In the postwar years, both countries have also become more diverse in real social terms and also more open to the idea that heritage communities should claim their rightful place in the public sphere. Throughout, the course examines the various ways in which multiculturalism in the larger sense and Jewish difference in particular have been conceptualized and experienced in these two national settings, considering both similarities and differences between the United States and France.

This course considers the issues of the contemporary world, in the light of the historical experiences of the last century and the current century. It is based on political history in the broadest sense, including economic, social, and cultural issues, and informed by the work of other social sciences. The privileged angle for approaching these two centuries is that of modernities, the discussions that this concept brings with it, and the issues that it covers: around the nation, violence, democracy, the welfare state, the environment, for example. Particular attention is paid to the conflicts that have arisen between different conceptions of modernity throughout the century. The approach is global, with particular attention to colonial and post-colonial contexts. 

This course explores the counter-revolutionary movements, ideas and actions that shaped European history from the Enlightenment to the end of World War II. It reflects on the political, social, and intellectual history of the counter-revolution, examining the forces resisting revolutionary change — monarchies, religious institutions, conservative thinkers, rural communities — and their response to key upheavals, including, of course, the French Revolution, the rise of socialism, and the emergence of authoritarian nationalism in the first half of the 20th century. The course engages with methodological and historiographical debates surrounding the counter-revolution. It critically assesses how the concept of counter-revolution interrogates the notions of conservative and far-right politics and explores how counter-revolutionary movements contributed to the construction of political modernity in Europe.