Intensive Study Abroad at the Paris Research Center
May Intersession

This year students campus-wide will benefit from unique opportunities for intensive study abroad lasting from one to two weeks. These innovative programs for intensive study abroad in Paris were expressly created to provide in-depth on-site international experiences. They include: 7 or 14 activity-rich days in Paris with meetings at the Paris Research Center, classes given on-site at the cultural, historical and political institutions you are studying, 6 or 13 nights in hotels, numerous group meals, site visits, cultural activities and UF credit.

• Download 2009 May Brochure (PDF)

Programs Offered May Intersession 2009

Weeklong programs

• The Legacy of Pasteur (ALS 4404)
  Professor Valérie de Crécy-Lagard
• Commodities to Café – Agricultural and Food Marketing in France
  Professor James Sterns

Two-week programs

• The Architecture of Paris: Experiments of Place
  Professor Nancy Clark
• Americans in Paris
  Professor Andrew Gordon

Course Descriptions

Weeklong programs

The Legacy of Pasteur (ALS 4404)
Professor Valérie de Crécy-Lagard

• Download Course Description (PDF)

Although the discovery of the microscope at the end of the 17th century is considered the starting point of microbiology, it was the 19th century that truly laid the foundation of modern microbiology. During this one-week intensive program, students will explore how the work of key scientists such as Louis Pasteur influenced fields as varied as chemistry, medicine, public health, and food processing.

Based in Paris, 19th Century European Science and Modern Microbiology allows students to examine the evolution of science from the 1800s to modern times. Through a combination of lectures, site visits, interviews, and scientific literature analysis, students will not only study Pasteur's accomplishments, but will also learn how his legacy is carried on today at the Pasteur Institute. The program will also include a variety of cultural activities and enhancements in and around Paris.

Commodities to Cafés: Agricultural and Food Markets in France
Professor James Sterns
jasterns@ufl.edu

• Download Course Description (PDF)

Through an intensive seven-day program, students in this course will be presented with an overview of the agricultural and food marketing system of France. Discussions, presentations and assigned reading materials will include the following topics – the French approach to supply chain management (i.e., les filières), food quality signaling in French foods, the tradition of fresh markets in France, European grocery retailing, and international agricultural trade and its relationship to economic development. Through these activities, students will be introduced to a wide range of perspectives about food marketing, and how agricultural producers and food processors are able to meet the strident, quality-focused demand of their customers. Time in Paris will be balanced across types of activities so that cultural events, tours and visits will be incorporated into the overall program. Students in this course should anticipate a very demanding experience that will require them to be open-minded, flexible, curious, hard working and sleep deprived!

Two-week programs

The Architecture of Paris: Experiments of Place
Professor Nancy Clark
nmclark@ufl.edu

Paris is a uniquely layered landscape of historical and modern architectural monuments. Historic structures include the Louvre Palace, the Viaduct Daumesnil, the Eiffel Tower, and Labrouste’s Bibliothèque Nationale. The late 20th century has added the modern grands projets, including the Parc and Cité des Sciences at La Villette, the Institute du Monde Arabe, the Bibliothèque de France, and the new design proposals for Les Halles, as well as lesser known but equally important projects that have emerged out of PAN (new architecture programme), a critical component to understanding the modern fabric of the city. This course will examine the architecture of the city of Paris as a layered artifact, constructed out of the collective social, political and economic influences embedded in its history, with a specific emphasis on Paris’s modern city image. Students will participate in several guided tours of the city and building interiors, meet with prominent Parisian architects who will discuss their work and ideas about the city, and take part in daily discussion sessions. Course participants will be responsible for keeping a journal in which they will study and record Paris based on their own city theme.

Americans in Paris
Professor Andrew Gordon (2 weeks)
agordon@ufl.edu

• Download Course Description (PDF)

Students enrolled in this course will study Americans' changing views of Paris as reflected in eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature and in selected Hollywood films, such as An American in Paris. The objective is to gain increased understanding of American and French culture by studying Franco-American interaction in American literature and film. Through readings, films, and their own writing, students encountering Paris—perhaps for the first time—can compare their responses to the city to those of many generations of Americans who loved Paris. Course requirements include selected readings from Americans in Paris, ed. Adam Gopnik; viewing of selected films prior to departure; attendance and participation in class and on field trips; and keeping a journal. The field trips will be lecture tours, which will follow the routes described by Hemingway, and will visit Paris sites cafés and restaurants favored by "The Lost Generation."

Previous Year's May Session Courses

• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2004

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