The program begins with a 11-day practicum focusing on language learning, with special attention paid to the acquisition practical skills for living in Paris. Every week excursions will allow students to discover the city.

After the practicum students take one French language and two upper-division courses in the Social Sciences and the Humanities intended to provide windows into French history, identity, visual culture, literature, politics and economics in relation to a broader European civilization, and to the United States.

The program is intended as rewarding experience abroad, and it is also a gateway for some students who may choose to extend their stay in France for a second semester at the University of Bordeaux.

ATTENDANCE POLICY FOR THE PROGRAM IN FRENCH AND EUROPEAN STUDIES

Your regular participation in ongoing studies will provide a stable rhythm as you explore a city and a world that will be exciting and foreign to you. All of our classes are designed to give you a unique and valuable perspective on this fascinating city. We have been working with most of our distinguished professors for many years now, and they have all been selected because of the high quality of their work in their respective fields. French educational culture demands your regular on-time attendance and a more formal and respectful approach than you have experienced on your UC campus. A teacher has the right not to allow a student entry into a class once the class has begun. Your responsibility as UC students during our fall semester is to achieve academic excellence in course work, thereby taking advantage of the excellent educational opportunities provided you.

In general, any absence from class is interpreted as a sign that a student is not living up to their UC obligations. Unexcused absences will lower course grades, and repeated absences may lead to academic probation or dismissal from the program. Class attendance is taken at the beginning of each lecture and names of absent students are forwarded to the Academic Coordinator the same day. Unlike your home campus, each unexcused absence from one of the program courses will automatically result in your final grade being lowered by one-third a letter grade (eg. B+ becomes a B; A- becomes B+). If the absence is to be excused, the student must contact the Academic Coordinator within one week; after a week, the absence is fixed as unexcused and the grade reduction can be anticipated.

Excused absences are given if a student is ill. Medical absences must be accompanied by a doctor's note in order to be excused. You will have health insurance during your stay that covers the full cost of doctor services and prescriptions, so make use of it early and often if need be. If you are not feeling well, we will be happy to direct you to a doctor or a doctor to you.

Absences due to travel and related transportation problems do occur and so we allow one travel related absence for which the student must submit a written account within one week of their return. The application for a travel excuse will only be awarded with the Study Centre Director's consent. Note, the travel related absence can be applied only for the return portion of your trip. To avoid a travel related absence, plan the timing of your departure (no skipping out early) and return carefully (never be on the last flight or train to get you back to Paris).

COURSE OFFERINGS FOR FALL 2010

Content Courses

  PCC 111. Histories of Paris (PDF)
Professor Christina von Koehler
Using the buildings and space of Paris as a laboratory, this course surveys key events in the histories of Paris and France. The course will focus on the social and cultural history of the city in its material dimensions; the relation of streets and buildings to the unfolding events of French history, and the meanings of local topography within the enduring mythologies of the city. A central goal of the course is to teach students to read and write critically about the history of Paris and the cityscape around them. Includes some excursions. 5.0 credits

TOP

   PCC 115. European Integration (PDF)
Professor Mariam Habibi
This course aims to provide a general introduction to the history, the structure and the current developments of the European Union with a specific focus on France. We shall look at the circumstances after the second World War that once again put the 'Idea of Europe' on the agenda and the role that France played in the rebirth of this idea. The EU will be studied from a theoretical point of view; how do we define its structure? What determines the shape and speed of the integration process? How does this institution maintain its legitimacy? We will evaluate the success of this project by looking at specific policies, such as the common agricultural policy, the economic and social policy and common foreign and security policies. Finally we will consider the role of the EU as a global actor and study the EU's relations with the rest of the world. 5.0 credits

TOP

  PCC 116. Cultural Identities in France (PDF)
Professor Stéphane Dufoix
This course explores recent political debates about French identity in light of the challenges posed by immigration (especially non-European immigration), feminism, economic and cultural globalization (considered an American-directed movement), and France's peculiar version of “multiculturalism”. Includes a one-hour discussion section. 5.0 credits

TOP

  PCC 117. French Media in the EU (PDF)
Professor Rachel K. Ward
This course will explore the interaction between French media and contemporary society. The aim of the course is to give participants a detailed understanding of the various media: press, television, radio, publishing and the internet. Themes will include the genesis and growth of the French media, institutionalization of the media, media and politics, media as a tool of power, and the identity of the French media within Europe and a globalized world. We will contextualize the current state of affairs and look closely at the way the nineteenth century paved the way for modern media today. The course will be conducted in an interactive seminar format and will include visits to museums as well as interventions from actors in the French media. 5.0 credits

TOP

  PCC 120. French Cinema (PDF)
Professor Marc Cerisuelo
In this course we will study the endurance and resilience of French cinema, the causes and effects of film as a "French passion." We will pay special attention to strong directorial personalities (Carn", Bresson, Tati, Godard, etc.); the French star system ; the popular love of cinema; French critical approaches to cinema; and the role of the state in promoting French cinema. We will cast a wide net over cinema to understand the secrets of the privileged relationship between a nation, an art, and a social practice. 6.0 credits

TOP

  PCC 123. Paris in Literature (PDF)
Professor Will Bishop
This course looks at representations of Paris in French literature of the modern period. Readings have been chosen to introduce students to Paris’s multiple and changing identities. The course will place a particular emphasis on the borders, sometimes extremely stable and others somewhat porous, between the different social worlds that make Paris such an interesting, diverse, and culturally important city. Beginning with Balzac’s powerful representation of the city as the locus of power, corruption and social inequality, we will trace key developments in the way French novelists, poets and filmmakers have conceptualized their capital city. We will in the course of the semester become familiar with some of the important literary movements of the modern period: realism (Balzac), naturalism (Zola), surrealism (Breton) etc. 5.0 credits

TOP

  PCC 125. French Art: 1715 - 1914 (PDF)
Professor Christopher Boicos
This course traces the evolution of French painting from the decline of the Ancien Régime, through the upheavals of the Revolutionary age, to the birth of modern industrial and capitalist France in the 19th century. It ends with the last heroic re-definition of “modernity” in art at the opening of the 20th century. 5.0 credits.

TOP

  PCC 128. France and its Struggles over its Empire 1870-2010 (PDF)
Professor Carole Reynaud-Paligot
This course approaches the processes of colonization and decolonization both within the French Empire and in the context of current discussions. It will examine the cultural and social context which facilitated colonial domination (the development of the Social Darwinism and the racial thinking), the construction of colonial myths (the colonial epic, the "mise en valeur") but also the political and cultural resistances to colonial domination. To treat the diverse aspects of this colonial culture, various documents will be analyzed: propaganda texts, comic strips, posters, photos, movies, literary works. 5.0 credits.

TOP