contemporary french studies

Note: This course listing is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a contract between CIEE and any applicant, student, institution, or other party. The courses, as described, may be subject to change as a result of ongoing curricular revisions, assignment of lecturers and teaching staff, and program development. Courses may be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment.

CIEE Study Center Syllabi

To view the most recent syllabi for courses taught by CIEE at our Study Centers, visit our syllabi site.

Required CIEE Language Courses

FREN 2001 PCFS

Intermediate French I, Grammar and Composition
This class aims to review and consolidate the fundamentals of grammar (present, past, and future tenses; interrogation and negation; pronouns) and to introduce new elements on this basis (agreements; adjectives and adverbs; irregular verbs). Students learn to compose simple, descriptive, informative texts and expressions of opinion. Instructor: Dominique Bendelian

FREN 2002 PCFS

Intermediate French II, Grammar and Composition
Grammatical training (tenses, reported speech, introduction to conditional and subjunctive) is complemented by reading and analysis of simple texts to illustrate the grammatical points raised in class. By the end of the class, students should be able to write a descriptive or narrative text in a clear and organized fashion about familiar subjects. Instructor: Véronique Teyssandier

FREN 2003 PCFS

Intermediate French I, Conversation and Culture
The class is based on topics related to daily life in contemporary France. In order to develop speaking skills, students participate in activities such as presentations, role playing, and visits. They gradually become more confident in daily life conversations. By the end of the class, students should be able to understand and participate in a simple face-to-face conversation about practical issues and familiar subjects. Instructor: Thierry Gallier

FREN 2004 PCFS

Intermediate French II, Conversation and Culture
Students learn to understand and carry out a face-to-face conversation about a range of everyday issues relevant to contemporary France. They learn to compose and present short oral presentations on topics requiring research in French. The course also focuses on vocabulary development, articulation, and the notion of registers of speech. Instructor: Lucie Laureillard

FREN 3101 PCFS

Intermediate French III, Grammar and Composition
Students, with the professor’s guidance, practice constructing phrases of greater and greater complexity, and through this process improve their knowledge of grammatical points (tenses, including the conditional and the subjunctive, pronouns, beginning of argumentation). By the end of the semester, students should be able to write a short essay on a subject of general interest. Instructor: Delia Mellado

FREN 3102 PCFS

Intermediate French III, Conversation and Culture
By the end of the semester, students should be able to express their opinions on familiar subjects and give oral presentations in an organized way using a range of registers. The student should be able to understand a conversation including several participants and covering a range of personal and general topics. Instructor: Dominique Bendelian

Language in Context Electives (offered in English)
Please note that not all courses are offered each semester.

AHIS 3001 PCFS

French Avant-Garde Artists from 1905 to 1960: From Fauvism to New Realism
(spring only)
This course introduces students to the Parisian art scene of the first part of the 20th century. Selected works, iconography and its shifts in time and meaning, and biographies of the artists as a means of interpretation are discussed. Another equally important objective of the course is to appreciate major pieces of art using the resources of Paris through museum visits. Instructor: Nicolas Baudouin

AHIS 3002 PCFS

Issues in Nineteenth Century French Painting
(fall only)
This course studies French painting from Neo-Classicism to Post-Impressionism, covering major movements such as Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Symbolism. Students are exposed to different methods of art historical research—formal analysis of selected works, iconography and its shifts in time and meaning, and the biographies of the artists as a means of interpretation. The focus of the course is the concept of “modernity” and the increasing search for independence with respect to the institutions as it was expressed by some of the major artists of the second half of the century. Instructor: Nicolas Baudouin

ANTH 3001 PCFS/FRST 3003 PCFS

Intercultural Communication
(fall and spring)
This course is an introduction to basic concepts of intercultural communication, including cultural values and beliefs; verbal and non-verbal communication; and stereotypes, focusing on the Franco-American and study abroad contexts. Selected themes include cultural differences in conceptions of the home, food and drink, friendship and family relations, and identity and diversity. Each semester, a few class sessions are organized jointly with French students from the Université de Paris—Nanterre or other French institutions, and co-taught with a French professor so that intercultural dialogue becomes a part of the class. Instructor: Hannah TaÏeb, CIEE Resident Director

ANTH 3002 PCFS

Cultural Approaches to Disability
(spring)
Questions related to disability can be analyzed through many different disciplines: medical, social, and historical. This class takes a cultural approach, considering how different contexts invest disability with different meanings; how different policies, social movements, forms of creation, and communities linked to disabilities may emerge; and how ideas about disability interact with social ideals of equality and diversity. The focus will be on the French context and French-American comparisons. Instructor: Hannah Taieb

CINE 3001 PCFS

Contemporary French Cinema
(fall only)
This course focuses on contemporary French cinema, with an emphasis on film culture in Paris and its area. It also provides an introduction to the practice of film analysis as well as to the main figures and movements in the period considered. In addition, the role(s) played by cinema in the social, societal, and political changes occurring in contemporary France—as a document, but also as a participant—are examined. Instructor: Franck Le Gac

FRST 3001 PCFS

Paris Collage: History, Culture, Architecture
(fall and spring)
This course is a multi-faceted approach to the city’s development and evolution, with an emphasis on the impact of cultural, social, and political forces on Paris’ built environment. From the Gallo-Roman forum to contemporary urban design, Paris is studied through a series of three hour sessions in the city itself and extensive readings in architectural, social, and political history, and literature. Instructor: Linnea Tilly

HIST 3002 PCFS/POLI 3001 PCFS

Post-War France
(fall and spring)
This course provides an overview of French politics and society since 1945. Specific topics include the Fourth Republic, Algerian war, decolonization, May 1968, role of intellectuals in French culture, immigration and multi-ethnic France, and challenges facing France today. Instructor: Arun Kapil

HIST 3003 PCFS

Memory and Commemoration in 21st Century France
(spring only)
This course examines the ways that France’s cataclysmic past—characterized by war, occupation, collaboration, resistance and deportation, and fierce colonial conflict—is incorporated into public discourse to serve contemporary political purposes. In addition to recent scholarship, our sources include film and literature, monuments and museums, and contemporary media. The class involves weekly visits to places where history was made and remembered. Instructor: Catherine Healey

INDR 3003 PCFS

Directed Independent Research
(fall and spring)
CIEE supports qualified students who wish to pursue an academically rigorous independent research project while in Paris. Interested students must submit a research proposal including a clearly defined research topic, an explanation of research plans, a description of preparation in the planned area of study, a list of resources, a tentative outline of a final paper, and a suggested schedule of progress. Students complete a total of 135 hours of research and meet regularly with an academic advisor to complete an academically rigorous, ethically sound, and culturally appropriate research project and final paper. Approval for participation in Directed Independent Research must be obtained from the resident director and the student’s home institution prior to arrival on the program.

LITT 3001 PCFS

The 20th Century French Novel
(fall and spring)
This course explores key figures, themes, and narrative styles in the French novel during the 20th century including works by Marcel Proust, Andre Gide, Colette, Andre Breton, Albert Camus, Marguerite Duras, Nathalie Sarraute, and Patrick Modiano. Instructor: Derek O’Regan

SOCI 3001 PCFS

Muslim Presence in Europe
(fall and spring)
This course is an overview of the long-term interaction between the Muslim world and the West, with a focus on the debates regarding the Muslim population in Europe. There are organized field trips to specific sites in Paris historically linked with the Muslim community. Themes covered include concepts of religion and secularism, the history of Muslim populations in Europe, legal issues, human rights, feminism, and modernity. The class attempts to conceptualize the West and Islam not as two separate entities, but to emphasize their historic commonality and dialectic relation.

Several language through content courses will be offered in French at a level adapted to low-intermediate students in the Language in Context track.

Language and Culture courses (offered in French)

AHIS 3001 PCFS

French Avant-Garde Artists from 1905 to 1960: From Fauvism to New Realism
(spring only)
This course introduces students to the Parisian art scene of the first part of the 20th century. Selected works, iconography and its shifts in time and meaning, and biographies of the artists as a means of interpretation are discussed. Another equally important objective of the course is to appreciate major pieces of art using the resources of Paris through museum visits. Instructor: Nicolas Baudouin

AHIS 3002 PCFS

Issues in Nineteenth-Century French Painting
(fall only)
This course studies French painting from Neo-Classicism to Post-Impressionism, covering major movements such as Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Symbolism. Students are exposed to different methods of art historical research—formal analysis of selected works, iconography and its shifts in time and meaning, and the biographies of the artists as a means of interpretation. The focus of the course is the concept of “modernity” and the increasing search for independence with respect to the institutions as it was expressed by some of the major artists of the second half of the century. Instructor: Nicolas Baudouin

CINE 3001 PCFS

Contemporary French Cinema
(fall only)
This course focuses on contemporary French cinema, with an emphasis on film culture in Paris and its region. It also provides an introduction to the practice of film analysis as well as to the main figures and movements in the period considered. In addition, the role(s) played by cinema in the social, societal, and political changes occurring in contemporary France—as a document, but also as a participant—are examined. Instructor: Franck Le Gac.

CLST 3001 PCCS

Seminar on Living and Learning in Paris
(fall and spring)
The CIEE Seminar on Living and Learning in Paris, taught in French, is designed to improve students’ intercultural communication and competence while studying abroad by considering how the French are different from and similar to themselves and others. The course offers opportunities, both in and outside the classroom, to develop insights and the skills necessary to interact effectively and appropriately, and to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the cultural richness of France. Contact hours: 25. Recommended credit: 2 semester/3 quarter hours.

CMBL 3001 PCFS SOCI 3004 PCFS

Community Service Learning: Social Justice
(fall and spring) The class uses the notion of service learning as the starting point for a reflection on cultural notions of service, justice, and community. We will be analyzing and interpreting cultural differences about the notions underlying giving and receiving, service and help, looking in particular at the American notion of social justice and the French notion of solidarité, and the related but non-identical notions of diversity and diversité. The class will use both historical and anthropological approaches. Instructors: Hannah Taieb and Catherine Healey.

FREN 3002 PCFS

French Phonetics
(fall and spring) This course is a systematic study of sound in the French language. Emphasis is on proper pronunciation, as well as the classification and transcription of French vowels and consonants. It also includes a comparative analysis with English phonetics. Instructor: Anne-Marie Ollier

FREN 3003 PCFS

Workshop on French Academic Writing and Reasoning
(fall and spring)
This course explores cultural notions concerning academic expectations and intellectual life in France. Weekly coursework complements and accompanies participation as an auditor in a French university class. Students present oral exposés and write papers in the French academic formats of dissertation and commentaire composé. This course is required for students auditing a Université de Paris course. Instructors: Séverine Dard and Franck Le Gac

FRST 3004 PCFS

Paris Métisse: Multiculturalism and Popular Culture in Paris
(spring only)
The course focuses on métissage or cultural mixing in popular cultural forms, such as music, comic books, and cinema. Examples from each of these popular culture genres are used to explore the following themes: what are the images of Frenchness and of the exotic non-French Other that emerge in these forms? What kinds of cultural mixing or métissage can be untangled through analyzing examples in detail? What kinds of cultural expression emerge from recent immigrants to France and their children? The course presupposes some knowledge of French history. Instructor: Hannah Taïeb, CIEE Resident Director, and Franck Le Gac

FRST 3002 PCFS

Francophone Cultures Through Literature and Film
(fall only and spring)
This course is an introduction to the understanding of Francophone cultures of western and northern Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada. Emphasis is given to the role of French and problems of cultural production. Authors and filmmakers may include Aime Cesaire, Maryse Conde, Assia Djebar, Jacques Godbout, and Anne Hebert. Instructor: Ines Horchani

FRST 3009 PCFS/ RELI 3001 PCFS/ SOCI 3002 PCFS

Religious Diversity in Secular France
(fall only)
After a discussion of the historical development of religion in French society, considering briefly the Catholic church and its link to kingship, Protestant-Catholic conflict, and the French revolution and its aftermath (Napoleon’s Empire), this class focuses on religious diversity in France today. The class looks at the four major religions present (Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, and Judaism) as well as relatively new religious groups (Buddhism, Evangelical Protestantism), contemporary forms of spirituality among youth, and sects and cults. The particular French version of secularism, laicité, is examined in implicit and explicit contrast with American notions. The class also examines contemporary conflicts about laicité (for example, the ban on ostentatious religious symbols at school and the present political and social debate on the banning of the burka). Outings to places of worship, schools, or other relevant sites are incorporated in to the class. Instructor: ElYamine Soum

FRST 3005 PCFS

Seminar on the French Educational System: Theory and Practice
(fall only)
This course considers key issues in French culture and society through the French educational system. A brief history of education in France leads into a study of differing teaching cultures, with an implicit comparison between U.S. and French notions of educational issues. These include pedagogical practices (memorization, individual initiative and group work, and exams), teacher-student relationships, education as a right, religion and secularism, and national vs. local control of schools. Students study these issues in class and then move into a series of sessions in French schools, teaching English to high-school youth. Academic year students may continue to deepen these themes with the seminar on French educational culture. Instructor:Séverine Dard

FRST 3008 PCFS

Seminar on French Educational Culture: Study and Experimentation
(spring only)
This class approaches French educational culture through the study of a specific institution of secondary education. The guiding theme of the seminar is to learn about the school system not only as an institutional site but as a socio-cultural site. The first section of the class establishes the historical and theoretical framework. In the second section, students become actors through educative and pedagogical practice in a school, each student teaching four classes in collaboration with an English teacher. This active immersion leads each student to set up an original pedagogical experience. During the third section of the class, students must think through and write up what has happened, intellectually, culturally, and humanly. Their final papers allow them to focus on what teaching in France has brought them, what teaching can illuminate for us about French culture, and also about their own culture. The comparison with the educational culture in the U.S. is a sub-theme of the class. The students also complete a critical reading of an essay or novel related to the themes of the class to accompany them in their reflection. The class is open to spring students and also to annual students who have taken the Seminar on the French Educational System. Instructor: Severine Dard

INDR 3003 PCFS

Directed Independent Research
(fall and spring)
CIEE supports qualified students who wish to pursue an academically rigorous independent research project while in Paris. Interested students must submit a research proposal including a clearly defined research topic, explanation of research plans, description of preparation in the planned area of study, list of resources, tentative outline of a final paper, and suggested schedule of progress. Students complete a total of 135 hours of research and meet regularly with an academic advisor to complete an academically rigorous, ethically sound, and culturally appropriate research project and final paper. Approval for participation in Directed Independent Research must be obtained from the resident director and the student’s home institution prior to arrival on the program.

LITT 3001 PCFS

The 20th Century French Novel (French)
(fall only)
This course explores key figures, themes, and narrative styles in the French novel during the 20th century, including works by Marcel Proust, Andre Gide, Colette, Andre Breton, Albert Camus, Marguerite Duras, Nathalie Sarraute, and Patrick Modiano. Instructor: tba

LITT 3003 PCFS

The Contemporary French Short Story and Literary Essay
(spring only)
This class examines French short stories and literary essays from the 20th and 21st century. Authors to be studied include Michel Tournier, Annie Saumont, Jean Echenoz, Julien Gracq, Julien Green, Corinna Bille, and Alexandre Vialatte. Instructor: Claire de Obaldia

POLI 3002 PCFS

France and the European Union: Politics and Identities
(fall only)
This class places France in the context of the European project. We will look at recent European history, the World Wars and their aftermath, and the rise of the notion of the nation-state and emergence and evolution of the idea of the European “member state.” We will consider the structure of European institutions and policy-making, in general and with a particular focus on economic policy. And we will look at the patterns of migration and movement into and throughout Europe, considering how notions of “national identity” compete with transnational and diaspora identities and variously-defined notions of “Europeanness.” Instructor: tba

SOCI 33003 PCFS

Contemporary French Society
(spring only)
This class uses a sociological approach to look at key issues in French society. Themes discussed will include 1) the use of categories and classifications: how are categories like « ouvriers », « cadres », « pauvres », « immigrés » or « étrangers » defined and used; 2) the use of statistics to consider equality and inequality, as well as demography, natality, marriage and the family, and sexuality; 3) social stratification, distinction, and cultural capital; and 4) notions of work, leisure, and consumption. Instructor: tba

Université de Paris Courses
Qualified Contemporary French Studies students may audit classes at either the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 or Université de Paris Diderot. Those who do so are required to take the CIEE class, workshop on French academic writing and reasoning.

The Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 focuses on the study of languages, French literature, comparative literature, theater, Arab world studies, and cinema. Most undergraduate (licence level) classes are taught at the Censier Center at the southern limit of the Latin Quarter. www.univ-paris3.fr.