Orientation

Fall semester, the program begins with a two-week intensive language session at the Alliance Française in Bordeaux. In addition to an intensive grammar review, classes at the Alliance Française emphasize spoken French and contemporary culture. Bordeaux offers students the opportunity to discover a lively provincial city (pop. 250,000) before going to Paris. Students will be housed with local families and will have the opportunity to participate in visits to sites in Bordeaux and the surrounding region.

In the fall, the orientation process continues for a third week in Paris, with social and cultural activities and a series of meetings devoted to matters like getting around Paris, discovering the various “arrondissements” by bus and on foot with French students, French customs and intercultural interactions, the organization of the French university system, the French press, and so on.

Spring semester, the program begins with a two-and-a-half-week orientation and intensive language session in Paris. Students participate in morning conversation classes that emphasize contemporary culture through music newspapers, songs, videos, and literature, and in a variety of afternoon and evening activities designed to help them gain an understanding of contemporary French culture. Activities have included cheese, wine and chocolate tastings in Parisian shops, visits to a French bakery, a lecture by a journalist from the French newspaper Libération, an exclusive press agency visit, and cinema evenings to see the latest French films. Students are housed in an international youth hostel for the first few days and then move in with their host families during their first week-end.

The orientation weeks in Paris offer students the opportunity to become more comfortable navigating the city at their own rhythm, to ease their new housing, to listen and speak French intensively and regularly, as well as to meet French people whom the VWPP invites to these activities.

Students also have plenty of time to visit Parisian sites and monuments during their first weeks in Paris and are provided with a list of sites and museums they are encouraged to visit on their own during the Paris orientation session. They are given a stipend to help pay for any entrance fees they have paid to visit museums or monuments, the cost of tickets to see French films, and so on.

The Academic Program

Our academic program is designed to achieve three objectives. First, because we want students from all disciplines, whether they are majors in biology, history, literature, or any other field, to be able to spend a year or a semester in Paris, we provide students with access to a broad academic program offering courses in a variety of fields. Students should discuss their projected program with their advisor before they leave the United States, but they probably can take at least one course in Paris that will count towards their major(s).

Second, because we think students can learn a great deal about French people and the French educational system from taking courses at a French university, we encourage students to take at least one university course, and have agreements with a number of Parisian institutions to enable our students to do so. These courses are valuable not only for their academic content, but also for the opportunity they afford students to participate in a different educational system.

Third, because American students often prefer seminar-size classes to some of the larger classes they might find in the French university system, and because French universities do not offer some of the kinds of courses on French civilization and culture that American students want to take while in Paris, we organize seminars each semester on French politics, history, art history, film, literature, and theater. Taught by outstanding French professors, these seminars are conducted entirely in French and provide students with the kind of close student-teacher contact associated with a Vassar or Wesleyan education. Many of these seminars include on-site lectures at museums and monuments, and visits to governmental institutions, concerts, films, opera, and theater performances.

The academic program has three components-- the writing-intensive courses and tutorats, French university courses, and the seminars we organize at Reid Hall-- and students enroll in four courses. All students must take a writing-intensive course and a tutorat. They are also expected to take a French university course. The other two courses may be taken at a French university or at Reid Hall.

With the resident director’s approval, students who stay in Paris for the full year may apply for a part-time internship related to their academic interests during the spring semester through an agreement with Internships in Francophone Europe. These internships typically require a commitment of two and a half days per week, and students are required to complete a research paper in connection with them. Students who complete the internship and the research paper successfully are awarded two course credits.

Students plan their academic program in consultation with the resident director, who is a member of the Vassar or Wesleyan faculty and serves as the academic advisor for all students during their time in Paris.

Grades and Credit

All program seminars and most other courses are the equivalent of a full-semester course at Vassar or Wesleyan. Grades from French university courses will be translated into American equivalents by the program. The program will provide transcripts of grades and evaluations to the registrar at the student’s home institution. Students who wish courses to be counted as part of the requirements for their major should consult with their major advisor before leaving for France.

Courses

French University Courses

Up until 1968, there was a single Parisian university, commonly known as the Sorbonne. After 1968, in response to student demands, the university of Paris was split up into a number of separate universities, each with its own set of programs. Paris II, for example, is the law school; Paris V is the medical school. In order to provide students with a comprehensive set of course choices, the VWPP has agreements with three of these universities—Paris IV (La Sorbonne), Paris VII (Jussieu-Denis-Diderot), and Paris XII (Créteil-Val de Marne)—and with the Collège International de Philosophie and the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (IEP or Sciences Po), that permit program students to take courses there.

Students who are interested in taking courses at Sciences Po must apply to do so during the semester before they plan to study in France through the Office of International Studies at Wesleyan or the Office of International Programs at Vassar.

Courses Taken at the Universities of Paris in the Last Couple of Years

Cinéma: La nouvelle vague; Le cinéma de science fiction; Hitchcock; Jean Renoir; Analyse de films et poétique du cinéma: le "jeune cinéma français" existe-t-il?; Analyse de film: étude des figures cinématographiques; Ecritures cinématographiques: l'oeuvre de Truffaut; Documentaire

Etudes Asiatiques: Histoire des religions chinoises

Études Ibériques et Latino-Américaines: Espagne et Amérique contemporaines; Amérique coloniale

Géographie: La terre est bleue comme une orange: Vérités et contrevérités sur l'homme et sa planéte

Histoire: Eglise et société dans la France médiévale; Initiation à I'islam médiéval; Histoire du XVIe siècle; Histoire des migrations en Europe (XIXe-XXe siècles); Histoire du XXe siècle; Etat et société politique en France au 20e siècle; Comportements et attitudes et forces politiques en France et en Europe; Histoire société et culture de la France contemporaine: La France des Trentes Glorieuses 1945-1974, cultures, modes de vie et consommation; Introduction à l'Afrique Noire; Histoire de la Péninsule Indochinoise; Ethnologie et Histoire

Histoire de l'Art: Archéologie et Histoire de l'art de l'Egypte, Islam et Proche-Orient; Archéologie et Histoire de l'art grec; Archéologie et Histoire de l'art romain, gallo-romain et paléochrétien; Archéologie et Histoire de l'art de l'Occident médiéval; Archéologie et Histoire de l'art des pays d'islam; Histoire de l'art du XXème-XXIème; Histoire de l'art du XIXème-XXème; Art du Moyen-Age; Iconographie antique et médiévale; Art d'extrême orient; Archéologie du monde islamique; Art de l'Inde et de la Chine; Apprendre à voir l'architecture, la peinture, la sculpture

Italien & Roumain: Sociolinguistique: Langue et société en Italie; Techniques de traduction; Version et Littérature

Langues étrangères: Arabe, Espagnol, Italien, Japonais

Littérature: Littérature Coloniale et Postcoloniale (Europe-Afrique-Antilles); Raconter la guerre; Littérature et philosophie; Littérature et psychanalyse; Figure de l'animal et de l'animalité dans le récit de cas et le texte littéraire; Théâtre et illusion; Lecture du roman, Lecture du théâtre; Lecture de la poésie; Lecture du conte; Marivaux; Littérature médiévale: "La démesure"; Immigration et récit familial; Littératures médiévales d'oc; Autobiographies et expériences interculturelles

Philosophie: Lecture de textes philosophiques; Le moment philosophique des années 60; Changer l'identité; Philosophie et esthétique du dédoublement; La crise du cadre et les avant-gardes; La guerre en question; Métaphysique(s) du mouvement: regards sur un phénomène impossible; Écrans philosophiques; Les compétences de l'étrangers: étrangeté et hospitalité; Fondation du quotidien

Photographie: Nouvelles images; Histoire et analyse de la photographie

Psychologie: Psychologie du fait social; Psychologie clinique; Psychopathologie; Psychanalyse

Religion: La Figure de Jacob

Santé Publique: Méthodes en Santé Publique: Santé des populations, systéme de santé

Sciences Economiques: Marketing; Théorie de la monnaie; Economie publique

Sociologie: Introduction à la sociologie; Sociologie Politique; Psychologie sociale; Femmes et institutions; Rapports sociaux de sexe; Sociologie des sciences; Migrations et relations interthniques; Ville et espaces sociaux

Traduction: Thème (français-anglais); Traductologie

Seminars

Like most French university courses, the seminars and writing-intensive courses organized by the program meet once a week for two hours. Since it is program policy to limit class size, students may not be able to take all the seminars in which they would like to enroll. We will, however, make every effort to arrange a challenging and rewarding program for each participant.

The following seminars were offered in the 2008-09 academic year.

Fall Seminars and Writing-Intensive Courses  

I. Etats et sociétés d'Afrique Noire face à la Globalisation

II. Cours de Théâtre - Amour et Tragédie

III. Le Romantisme au XIXe Siècle

IV. Métamorphose de l'objet: art et anti-art

V. Réagir sur la France d'aujourd'hui

VI. L'Idée de monstre dans la littérature

VII. Lieux de mémoire: Paris et la littérature

Spring Seminars and Writing-Intensive Courses

I. Réagir sur la France d'aujourd'hui

II. L'Ecriture de soi

III. Paris médiéval

IV. Le Scandale dans l'art

V. Le Théâtre contemporain

VI. Paris de 1789 à 1939

VII. L'Opera

VIII. L'Histoire non-officielle de la construction européenne

IX. Le Maghreb au XIXe et au siècles