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.
Courses offered depend on the number of students and their language levels. Courses with fewer than five students may be cancelled.
Session I
CINE 3002 PCSU
French Cinema
(in English)
This course focuses on French cinema, its history and current status, as well as Parisian cinema culture. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of social issues, as well as cinema as it falls in the cultural terrain of contemporary life in Paris. Major trends in the history of French cinema, as well as the influence of European cinema on French cinema, will be explored. This course integrates screenings and outings to the vast array of cinematic sites that Paris, the birthplace of film, has to offer. Instructor: Franck Le Gac
FREN 1012 PCSU
Beginning French Language
This course is designed for students with no background in French. This beginning language course covers the fundamentals of grammar (present, past, and future tenses, interrogation and negation, and pronouns) and helps student learn the speech acts essential to daily life (speaking about oneself, asking for information, recounting an incident, or expressing an intention, for example). Students are also instructed in beginning composition of simple descriptive texts. By the end of the course, students should be able to understand a simple face-to-face conversation on practical issues.
FREN 2002 PCSU
Intermediate I French Language
This course is designed for students with one to two semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. This class reviews and consolidates the fundamentals of grammar (present, past, and future tenses, interrogation and negation, and pronouns) and introduces new elements on this basis (agreements, adjectives and adverbs, and irregular verbs). The goal of the class is for students to be able to carry out speech acts essential to daily life and compose simple descriptive, informative texts and simple expressions of opinion. Students should be able to understand a simple face-to-face conversation about practical issues and familiar subjects.
FREN 2003 PCSU
Intermediate II French Language
This course is designed for students with two to three semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. Grammatical training (tenses, reported speech, and an 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 subjects with which he or she is familiar. The student should understand the concept of registers of speech and have a face-to-face conversation about a range of issues.
FREN 2004 PCSU
Intermediate III French Language
This course is designed for students with three to four semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. Students read news articles and stories, and through them improve their knowledge of grammatical points (tenses, including the conditional and the subjunctive, pronouns, and beginning of argumentation). By the end of the semester, students should be able to express their opinions on familiar subjects, give oral presentations in an organized way, and write a short essay on a subject of general interest 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.
FREN 3001 PCSU
Advanced French Language
This course is designed for students with four or more semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. Students read articles, essays, and literary texts, and carry out regular in-class and at-home writing exercises and essays, which are reviewed in class. The grammatical points covered in the syllabus (tenses, including the conditional, subjunctive, and passé simple, pronouns, and argumentation). By the end of the semester, students should be able to argue a point of view on abstract subjects in an oral presentation and write a well-constructed and coherent essay on a subject of general interest. They should be able to understand and use appropriately varied kinds of discourse, including formal and informal, slang, and academic language, as well as begin to master the different registers of language.
FRST 3002 PCSU
Francophone Cultures through Literature and Film
(in French)
This course provides an introduction to the understanding of Francophone cultures of western and northern Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada. Authors and filmmakers may include Aime Cesaire, Maryse Conde, Assia Djebar, Jacques Godbout, and Anne Hebert. Students should have four to five semesters of college-level French, but a placement test is administered upon arrival. Instructor: Claire de Obaldia
FRST 3003 PCSU
Paris Collage: History, Culture, Architecture
(in English)
This course provides a multi-faceted approach to the city’s development and evolution, with emphasis on the impact of cultural, social, and political forces on Paris’ environment. From the Gallo-Roman forum to contemporary urban design, Paris is studied through a series of three hour sessions in the city, and extensive readings in social and political and architectural history and literature. Field trips to provincial sites linked to the themes of the class are included. Instructor: Linnea Tilly
FRST 3005 PCSU/ RELI 3001 PCSU/ SOCI 3001 PCSU
Religious Diversity in Secular France
(in English)
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 contract with American notions. The class also examines contemporary conflicts about laicité (for example, the ban on ostentatious religious symbols at schools and the present political and social debate on banning the burka). Outings to places of worship, schools, or other relevant sites are incorporated in the class.
PHIL 4001 PCSU
Encountering Contemporary French Theory
(in French)
Designed for students with an advanced level in French and an interest in French theory and critique, this class explores how contemporary theoretical debates are being played out in the many critical and cultural construction sites of the city of Paris. Discussions of structuralist, post-structuralist, feminist, identity theory, post-colonialist, and other theoretical texts are complemented by structured daily “encounters” with those people and places that are defining 21st century French and global theoretical and critical debate. The works of such authors as Derrida, Deleuze, Foucault, Kristeva, Rancière, Badiou, Butler, Cassin, Agamben, and Stiegler may be considered. Encounters may occur at such places as the Musée du Quai Branly and the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration. Particular emphasis is placed on seminars offered by the Collège International de Philosophie. Instructor: Brent Keever, CIEE Resident Director
Session II
AHIS 3001 PCSU
19th Century French Painting: From Courbet to Dada
(in French)
This course focuses on the historical evolution of French painting from Realism through Impressionism, as well as the daring experiments of Van Gogh, Cézanne, and the nihilism of the Dadists. The course integrates visits to such museums as the Musée d’Orsay, Louvre, Musée Gustave Moreau, and Centre Pompidou. Instructor: Nicolas Baudouin
FREN 1012 PCSU
Beginning French Language
This course is designed for students with no background in French. This beginning language course covers the fundamentals of grammar (present, past, and future tenses, interrogation and negation, and pronouns) and helps student learn the speech acts essential to daily life (speaking about oneself, asking for information, recounting an incident, or expressing an intention, for example). Students are also instructed in beginning composition of simple descriptive texts. By the end of the course, students should be able to understand a simple face-to-face conversation on practical issues.
FREN 2002 PCSU
Intermediate I French Language
This course is designed for students with one to two semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. This class reviews and consolidates the fundamentals of grammar (present, past, and future tenses, interrogation and negation, and pronouns) and introduces new elements on this basis (agreements, adjectives and adverbs, and irregular verbs). The goal of the class is for students to be able to carry out speech acts essential to daily life and to compose simple descriptive, informative texts and simple expressions of opinion. Students should be able to understand a simple face-to-face conversation about practical issues and familiar subjects.
FREN 2003 PCSU
Intermediate II French Language
This course is designed for students with two to three semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. Grammatical training (tenses, reported speech, and an 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 subjects with which he or she is familiar. The student should understand the concept of registers of speech and have a face-to-face conversation about a range of issues.
FREN 2004 PCSU
Intermediate III French Language
This course is designed for students with three to four semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. Students read news articles and stories, and through them, improve their knowledge of grammatical points (tenses, including the conditional and the subjunctive, pronouns, and beginning of argumentation). By the end of the semester, students should be able to express their opinions on familiar subjects, give oral presentations in an organized way, and write a short essay on a subject of general interest 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.
FREN 3001 PCSU
Advanced French Language
This course is designed for students with four or more semesters of college-level French or the equivalent as determined by a placement test. Students read articles, essays, and literary texts, and carry out regular in-class and at-home writing exercises and essays, which are reviewed in class. The grammatical points covered in the syllabus (tenses, including the conditional, subjunctive, and passé simple, pronouns, and argumentation). By the end of the semester, students should be able to argue a point of view on abstract subjects in an oral presentation and write a well-constructed and coherent essay on a subject of general interest. They should be able to understand and use appropriately varied kinds of discourse, including formal and informal, slang, and academic language, as well as begin to master the different registers of language.
FRST 3004 PCSU
French Sign Language and Deaf Culture
(in International Sign Language and French Sign language)
This course is designed to introduce deaf and hearing American students to French Sign language, the history of French Deaf culture, and French cultural notions that have an impact on relations between the hearing and the deaf. Intermediate level ASL is required. Outings include visits to deaf schools and to sites outside of Paris with historical links to the deaf community.
FREN 4001 PCSU
Advanced Written and Oral Expression
(in French)
This class is designed for students with five or more semesters of college-level French, or the equivalent as determined by a placement test, and for CIEE summer students who completed Advanced French Language in Session I. Students carry out numerous written exercises, such as the construction of phrases according to a given model, short papers (essays or descriptions) about various subjects, short written résumés, and a guided research paper based on themes discussed in class. Group correction of the most common errors is used to present complex grammatical issues, such as causality, reported speech, the passé simple, and the past and imperfect of the subjunctive. By the end of the class, students should be able to express themselves in writing or orally in a language that is correct grammatically at a high level, and also involves correct syntax, idiomatic expressions, and a rich vocabulary without Anglicisms.
HIST 3001 PCSU
Memory and Commemoration in 21st Century France
This course examines the ways that France’s catacylsmic 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 wehre history was made and remembered.
LITT 3002 PCSU
Paris in French Literature
(in English)
This course looks at modern literary texts by French and Francophone writers in order to help students discover how these writers have registered and negotiated Paris’s power, prestige, social world, class struggles, intellectual life, and of course, its beauty. Readings include such works as Balzac’s Old Goriot, Modiano’s Honeymoon, and Mehdi Charef’s Tea in the Harem. Literary texts are complemented by short readings in the history of Paris, lectures on French literary history to provide context, and site visits throughout the city. Instructor: Derek O’Regan
PSYC 3001 PCSU
The Unconscious Eye : Psychoanalysis and the Visual Arts
(in English)
This course will explore psychoanalytic thought and critique in the field of 20th and 21st century visual art. Beginning with Surrealist film and painting, we will discover how psychoanlaysis, particularly in France, changed the way we think about what it means to look at an image, particularly the moving image. We will also explore the various links between madness and creativity, testing the limits of psychoanalysis’ ability to interpret the visual arts. Artists and thinkers such as Breton, Magritte, Bunuel, Artaud, Lacan, Metz, Rose, Doane, Deleuze and Guattari, and Zizek may be considered.
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