News from the Director, Dr. Gayle Zachmann, Fall 2004

It is a pleasure to report that the UF Paris Research Center has had a remarkably active kick-off year. We now have over 20 member units, and enthusiasm for this new platform for international initiatives has come from all over campus and from both sides of the Atlantic.

Numerous new research projects and study abroad programs have been made possible by the existence of the Center. In our first year we have welcomed and facilitated research projects, programs and courses from scholars in units including English/Film and Media Studies, Political Science, Art Education, Women's Studies and Gender Research, History, Romance Languages and Literatures, the Harn Museum, Chemical and Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Landscape Architecture, the Honors Program and the Warrington College of Business Administration.

I am delighted to report that the Center opened its doors to welcome 42 students over Spring Break '04. All participated in newly created, innovative intensive study programs: Representing the Streets of Paris: A Cinematic City , Fr ench Political Institutions, History, and Culture , and Modern Paris & Contemporary French Culture . Programs were designed and taught by Professors Maureen Turim (Film & Media Studies), Richard Conley (Political Science), Bernadette Cesar-Lee and Gayle Zachmann (Romance Languages and Literatures). These programs, made possible by the creation of the Paris Research Center, offered high caliber and unique academic experiences for UF students. Each course had its own assignments and itinerary, with extensive on-site, discipline-specific lecturing and daily visits to French institutions, major museums and collections, significant government sites, and guest lectures by distinguished scholars. Highlights included guest lecturers Professor Vincent Duclert of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales , Graduate Research Professor William Calin of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Florida, and critically acclaimed avant-garde filmmaker Yann Beauvais.

The month of May brought two new intensive programs to the Paris Research Center: Historic Landscape Architecture and Contemporary Landscape Architecture . Professor R. Terry Schnadelbach of the Department of Landscape Architecture coordinated and taught the two week-long programs, conducting tours of exemplary sites of landscape architecture in Paris and the surrounding region, complemented by on-site lectures. Students enrolled in Historic Landscape Architecture toured Le Notre's gardens in Vaux-le-Vicomte, Fontainebleau, and Versailles, as well as Monet's gardens in Giverny. Contemporary Landscape Architecture brought students to innovative modern Parisian spaces including the Parc de la Villette, la Défense, and the Institut du Monde Arabe.

The PRC also opened its first-ever summer study abroad program. The interdisciplinary program this year was designed to include courses in French, French History, and Cinema studies. Our summer study abroad program welcomed 22 students participating in intensive study abroad for six weeks. The summer program was coordinated by Professor Maureen Turim (Film & Media Studies), who taught Fr ench Cinema: Focus on Paris and led the group on Friday enhancement visits and numerous excursions. Professor Sheryl Kroen (History) taught France and the History of Consumer Culture , tracing the rise of mass consumption across the late 19th century and concluding with a discussion of France in the context of the increasingly global consumer culture of the twentieth century. All summer courses were enhanced by numerous cultural activities including museum visits, tours of Paris neighborhoods, and distinguished guest lecturersÜnotably Dr. Vanessa Schwartz of the University of Southern California, an eminent historian of modern visual culture. In addition, the program offered excursions to Mont St. Michel, Normandy, the Loire Valley and Giverny. We were particularly delighted to support the study and research of 4 graduate students conducting research in France this summer.

This spring the PRC welcomed several scholars-in-residence who led studies in a variety of domains. Dr. Melanie Davenport of the School of Art and Art History conducted research in intercultural art education, including the development of an art educational research symposium and a weeklong capstone seminar for graduate students in art education. Kerry Oliver-Smith, curator of Contemporary Art at the Harn Museum, joined us in Paris for the planning of an exposition entitled ¿Citizen/Denizen: Contemporary Art and the New Europe,î which is scheduled to premiere at the Harn Museum in 2007.

We are currently preparing to welcome two new fall term programs at the Paris Research Center: the Landscape Architecture Fall Term Studio Program , coordinated by Professor R. Terry Schnadelbach and accompanied by a monthly guest lecture series, and the Warrington College of Business Administration program for Study Abroad in Paris .

As Director of the Paris Research Center, I look forward to welcoming scholars and students to the Paris Research Center next academic year. I am happy to discuss individual and group projects with member scholars and look forward to bringing many international initiatives to the Center this year. Please feel free to contact me at paris-research@clas.ufl.edu

Director's News

• Fall 2008
• Fall 2007
• Fall 2006
• Fall 2005
• Fall 2004
• Fall 2003

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